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Aciphylla monroi; photograph (c) Paul Bell-Butler, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Paul Bell-Butler, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2023-04-13

Aciphylla monroi Hook.f.

Apiaceae · New Zealand South

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Aciphylla monroi Hook.f.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Hook.fil.

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Aciphylla monroi, photograph (c) Paul Bell-Butler, some rights reserved (CC BY)Aciphylla monroi, photograph (c) Paul Bell-Butler, some rights reserved (CC BY)Aciphylla monroi, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedAciphylla monroi, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedAciphylla monroi, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedAciphylla monroi, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 81 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-6.8°C
Record low -10.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
14°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,334mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
9–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Aciphylla monroi, also known as little speargrass, is a species of speargrass endemic to New Zealand.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Aciphylla monroi", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,690 mm of 2,347 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 11.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Rain

2,347 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,690 mm of it May to December. Wettest month October at 249 mm, driest month February at 139 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,374 mm to 4,520 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,334 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,347 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -6.8 °C, the absolute minimum -10.6 °C, 6,183 frost nights in 44 years, 140.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 19.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -4.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range -7.3 °C to -2.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 14.4 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -6.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +380 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Aciphylla monroi through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 14 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low -4.6 °C; 2,347 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost19.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-10.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 9–40RH 64–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 234 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C14 / 12–1714 / 12–1712 / 10–159 / 7–126 / 3–82 / -1–51 / -2–43 / -1–55 / 2–88 / 4–1010 / 7–1312 / 10–15
Night °C6 / 4–86 / 4–84 / 2–62 / -1–4-1 / -3–1-4 / -7–-2-5 / -7–-3-4 / -6–-2-2 / -4–00 / -3–22 / 0–44 / 2–7
Rain mm178 / 93–385139 / 90–292165 / 110–351175 / 100–343193 / 114–368220 / 128–381197 / 130–307191 / 125–347210 / 107–407249 / 134–453208 / 118–382222 / 111–477
DLI40 / 37–4234 / 32–3627 / 25–2918 / 16–2012 / 10–149 / 8–1111 / 9–1316 / 14–1823 / 21–2631 / 28–3437 / 34–4039 / 36–42
RH %64 / 60–6864 / 61–6965 / 61–6965 / 61–7065 / 60–7165 / 60–7164 / 60–6967 / 61–7166 / 61–7167 / 61–7165 / 61–7066 / 61–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 234 grid cells holding the 594 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2644:7054 (-42.225, 172.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -10.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -6.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 19.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 234 distinct grid cells holding 594 of the 594 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2644:7054 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -42.00_172.500, lapse-corrected +380 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1294 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew Zealand South · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-42.502, 172.278 · in the densest population, 646 records (84% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “subalpine or subarctic” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 771 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 594 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 280 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 39 km away. 11 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 177 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 771 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Aciphylla monroi, photograph 1did not loadAciphylla monroi, photograph 2did not loadAciphylla monroi, photograph 3did not loadAciphylla monroi, photograph 4did not loadAciphylla monroi, photograph 5did not loadAciphylla monroi, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Paul Bell-Butler, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (4).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Veronica lycopodioides Veronica lycopodioides Whipcord Hebe Photo: CC BY, Jenny SaitoDracophyllum pronum Dracophyllum pronum Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, BenFestuca matthewsii Festuca matthewsii Matthew's Fescue Photo: CC BY, 謝麗霦Raoulia grandiflora Raoulia grandiflora Large-flowered mat daisy Photo: CC BY, Cara-Lisa SchlootsAcaena fissistipula Acaena fissistipula Rosaceae Photo: CC BY, Pieter PelserCelmisia angustifolia Celmisia angustifolia Strap- leaved Daisy Photo: CC BY, Ben

Other Aciphylla 20 in the reference

Aciphylla aurea Aciphylla aurea Golden Spaniard Photo: CC BY, Brett SandfordAciphylla colensoi Aciphylla colensoi Colenso's spaniard Photo: CC BY, Oscar DoveAciphylla congesta Aciphylla congesta Apiaceae Photo: CC BY, John BarklaAciphylla crenulata Aciphylla crenulata Apiaceae Photo: CC BY, John BarklaAciphylla crosby-smithii Aciphylla crosby-smithii Apiaceae Photo: CC BY, Cara-Lisa SchlootsAciphylla dieffenbachii Aciphylla dieffenbachii Coxella Photo: CC0, author not statedAciphylla dissecta Aciphylla dissecta Apiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Jacob LittlejohnAciphylla dobsonii Aciphylla dobsonii Apiaceae Photo: CC BY, Liadan DickieAciphylla glacialis Aciphylla glacialis Mountain celery Photo: CC BY, Eamonn CulhaneAciphylla glaucescens Aciphylla glaucescens Apiaceae Photo: CC BY, John BarklaAciphylla horrida Aciphylla horrida Apiaceae Photo: CC BY, Mitch Van DykeAciphylla kirkii Aciphylla kirkii Apiaceae Photo: CC BY, PampaSorro all 21 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Gingidium monroi. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Apiaceae
Described by
Hook.f.
Native to
New Zealand South
Wild records
771 in range · 280 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21GBIF's key 5539054 is Aciphylla monroi Hook.fil.; the page links Kew's Aciphylla monroi Hook.f., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -42.00_172.500, lapse-corrected +380 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 9 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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