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Aframomum angustifolium; photograph (c) Mahomed Desai, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Mahomed Desai, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2023-06-06

Aframomum angustifolium (Sonn.) K.Schum.

Guinea Grains; Longoza Plant; Mlelgueta Pepper; Ethiopian cardamom

Zingiberaceae · Benin, Ghana +24

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Aframomum angustifolium, photograph (c) Mahomed Desai, some rights reserved (CC BY)Aframomum angustifolium, photograph (c) desertnaturalist, some rights reserved (CC BY)Aframomum angustifolium, photograph (c) Micha Baum, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Aframomum angustifolium, photograph (c) Micha Baum, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Aframomum angustifolium, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedAframomum angustifolium, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 13 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
13.8°C
Record low 11.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jan, Feb, Mar, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,020mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–38DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes November to May (the habitat's months, not shifted), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Aframomum angustifolium, known as longoza (Malagasy pronunciation: [luŋguza], also "wild cardamom" in English) is a species in the ginger family Zingiberaceae that grows in tropical Africa and in Madagascar.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Aframomum angustifolium", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,401 mm of 1,852 mm) falls in November to May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.8 °C against a yearly mean of 21.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,852 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,401 mm of it November to May. Wettest month January at 279 mm, driest month September at 76 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,056 mm to 3,364 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,020 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,852 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: 25 to 38 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 21, 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 13.8 °C, the absolute minimum 11.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.3 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 9.7 °C to 21.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.2 °C in January and February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.8 °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: 63 to 68% 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 -73 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 Aframomum angustifolium through the yearWarmest months January, February, March, November and December, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 16.3 °C; 1,852 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.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°40°33.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER11.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 25–38RH 63–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 53 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 °C27 / 24–3327 / 24–3427 / 24–3326 / 23–3225 / 21–3123 / 19–2923 / 18–2823 / 19–2825 / 20–2926 / 22–3027 / 24–3127 / 24–33
Night °C19 / 17–2420 / 17–2420 / 16–2420 / 15–2418 / 12–2417 / 11–2216 / 10–2217 / 10–2217 / 12–2218 / 14–2319 / 15–2319 / 16–23
Rain mm279 / 9–417250 / 30–467234 / 85–410151 / 66–404122 / 25–32383 / 14–31099 / 6–31985 / 14–28776 / 10–234108 / 34–194126 / 19–202239 / 16–326
DLI35 / 33–3934 / 32–3934 / 30–3831 / 27–3728 / 23–3525 / 21–3325 / 21–3328 / 24–3632 / 29–4236 / 32–4238 / 32–4236 / 32–40
RH %66 / 45–7266 / 49–7267 / 57–7367 / 60–7367 / 60–7266 / 58–7268 / 58–7268 / 56–7167 / 53–7165 / 55–7063 / 54–7067 / 49–71
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 53 grid cells holding the 69 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 1791:4208 (0.425, 30.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.5 °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 53 distinct grid cells holding 69 of the 69 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1791:4208 (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 0.50_30.625, lapse-corrected -73 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1256 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.
NativeBenin, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar · introduced: Mauritius, Seychelles · 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-3.367, 29.467 · in the densest population, 62 records (23% of those in range)
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 272 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 69 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 223 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 7 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 203 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 272 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Aframomum angustifolium, photograph 1did not loadAframomum angustifolium, photograph 2did not loadAframomum angustifolium, photograph 3did not loadAframomum angustifolium, photograph 4did not loadAframomum angustifolium, photograph 5did not loadAframomum angustifolium, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Mahomed Desai, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) desertnaturalist, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Micha Baum, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

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

Sphagneticola trilobata Sphagneticola trilobata Bay Biscayne creeping-oxeye Photo: CC BY, portioidOxalis debilis Oxalis debilis Large-flowered Pink-sorrel Photo: CC BY, WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁Stromanthe tonckat Stromanthe tonckat Stromanthe Photo: CC BY, Diogo LuizSchizolobium parahyba Schizolobium parahyba Brazilian firetree Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezBegonia wollnyi Begonia wollnyi Begoniaceae Photo: CC0, rebecca bachmanRodriguezia bracteata Rodriguezia bracteata Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Pedro Alvaro Neves

Other Aframomum 6 in the reference

Aframomum alboviolaceum Aframomum alboviolaceum Zingiberaceae Photo: CC BY, Zac PetersonAframomum corrorima Aframomum corrorima Korarima Photo: CC BY-SA, Joe Castleman (Gyrofrog)Aframomum daniellii Aframomum daniellii Zingiberaceae Photo: CC BY, Fábio Olmos Aframomum letestuanum Zingiberaceae Aframomum melegueta Aframomum melegueta Melegueta pepper Photo: CC BY-SA, LemmikkipuuAframomum zambesiacum Aframomum zambesiacum Zingiberaceae Photo: CC BY, Tony King

Names & registers

Also known as Aframomum baumannii; Aframomum sanguineum; Aframomum sceleratum; Amomum angustifolium; Amomum clusii and 11 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Zingiberaceae
Described by
(Sonn.) K.Schum.
Native to
Benin, Ghana, Guinea +23
Wild records
272 in range · 223 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 2026-10-21
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; 9 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (9 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 0.50_30.625, lapse-corrected -73 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
Wikimedia Commons commons 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 46 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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