Species
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Adenia kirkii (Mast.) Engl.

Passifloraceae

Climate known 24 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

About the genus · Adenia

Adenia is a genus of flowering plants in the passionflower family Passifloraceae. It contains about 100 species distributed in the Old World tropics and subtropics. The centers of diversity are in Madagascar, eastern and western tropical Africa, and Southeast Asia. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Adenia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Passifloraceae
Described by
(Mast.) Engl.
Native to
Kenya, Tanzania
Wild records
27 in range· 27 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Feb, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
884mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 156 mm (CHELSA)
Light
31–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Adenia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, March to May and October to December at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.3 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 884 mm a year, wettest May at 156 mm, driest February at 29 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 18.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Modecca kirkii Mast.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Adenia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, March to May and October to December at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.3 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (679 mm of 884 mm) falls in March to May and October to December. The temperature curve is flat, 3.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 884 mm a year, wettest May at 156 mm, driest February at 29 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

884 mm a year at the habitat, 679 mm of it March to May and October to December. Wettest month May at 156 mm, driest February at 29 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 658 mm to 1276 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 30, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 18.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 18.9 °C, the absolute minimum 16.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 20.5 °C in August (across the envelope cells 16.2 °C to 22.9 °C), warmest day 31.2 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 27 °C in Jul to 31 °C in Feb; mean night from 21 °C in Aug to 24 °C in Mar. The cold quarter, Jul to Sep, is the three months around the coldest night. 884 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 26 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 16.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°37.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)16.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 31–41RH 61–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 26 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C31 / 28–3331 / 28–3431 / 28–3329 / 28–3128 / 27–3027 / 26–3027 / 26–2927 / 26–3028 / 27–3129 / 27–3130 / 28–3230 / 28–32
Night °C24 / 21–2624 / 21–2624 / 21–2624 / 20–2523 / 18–2522 / 16–2421 / 16–2321 / 16–2321 / 17–2322 / 19–2423 / 20–2523 / 20–25
Rain mm42 / 26–21529 / 8–21880 / 51–255154 / 107–261156 / 39–27047 / 7–12829 / 4–8429 / 3–7629 / 5–5973 / 22–118106 / 50–127110 / 74–177
DLI39 / 34–4141 / 33–4339 / 33–4134 / 30–3531 / 30–3331 / 30–3232 / 30–3334 / 32–3638 / 35–4040 / 37–4239 / 37–4137 / 36–40
RH %63 / 60–6862 / 59–6964 / 60–7166 / 63–7065 / 60–6762 / 56–6461 / 55–6462 / 56–6462 / 57–6563 / 58–6664 / 60–6864 / 61–68

Each figure is the median across the 26 grid cells holding the 27 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1882:4389 (-4.125, 39.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 16.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 26 distinct grid cells holding the 27 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1882:4389 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -4.00_39.375, lapse-corrected +6 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 191 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeKenya, Tanzania
Kew's description“climbing caudex geophyte” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-3.267, 39.717 · in the densest population, 19 records (70% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 27 georeferenced records inside the native range, all openly licensed and shown on the map. 2 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 27 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Adenia kirkiiAdenia kirkiiAdenia kirkiiAdenia kirkiiAdenia kirkiiAdenia kirkiiAdenia kirkiiAdenia kirkii

Photographs: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, CC BY, via GBIF (4); Naturalis Biodiversity Center, CC0, via GBIF (4).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Adenia kirkii, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

A Simple, Fast and Portable Method for Electrochemical Detection of Adenine Released by Ricin Enzymatic Activity
George Augusto Veloso de Oliveira, José Maurício Schneedorf (2021) · Toxins
Kirkiin: A New Toxic Type 2 Ribosome-Inactivating Protein from the Caudex of Adenia kirkii
Massimo Bortolotti, Stefania Maiello, José M. Ferreras, Rosario Iglesias (2021) · Toxins
Heterophyllin: A New Adenia Toxic Lectin with Peculiar Biological Properties
Massimo Bortolotti, Francesco Biscotti, Andrea Zanello, Letizia Polito (2023) · Toxins
Biological Activities of Ribosome-Inactivating Proteins
Lucı́a Citores, José M. Ferreras (2023) · Toxins
Sequence, Structure, and Binding Site Analysis of Kirkiin in Comparison with Ricin and Other Type 2 RIPs
Stefania Maiello, Rosario Iglesias, Letizia Polito, Lucı́a Citores (2021) · Toxins
Review of the ethnobotany, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicity studies of the genus Adenia
Iliassou L. Mouafon, David R. Katerere (2025) · Frontiers in Pharmacology
Genotoxicity Assessment of Quinoin, a Ribosome Inactivating Protein from Quinoa Seeds, in the Teleost Danio rerio
Filomena Mottola, Sara Ragucci, Maria Carannante, Nicola Landi (2024) · Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark
New Insights on Saporin Resistance to Chemical Derivatization with Heterobifunctional Reagents
Massimo Bortolotti, Francesco Biscotti, Andrea Zanello, Andrea Bolognesi (2023) · Biomedicines
Plant Toxins as Potential Alternatives to Botulinum Toxin for Eye-Movement Disorder Therapy
Massimo Bortolotti, Andrea Zanello, Lorenzo Serra, Francesco Biscotti (2023) · Stresses
Differential effects of the recombinant type 1 ribosome-inactivating protein, OsRIP1, on growth of PSB-D and BY-2 cells
Simin Chen, Koen Gistelinck, Isabel Verbeke, Els J. M. Van Damme (2022) · Frontiers in Plant Science
Circumventing the Impossible: Cell-Free Synthesis of Protein Toxins for Medical and Diagnostic Applications
Alina Mai Woelbern, Franziska Ramm (2024) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Adenia 96 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 4 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.