Agapanthus inapertus Beauverd
Drakensberg agapanthus; Drooping Bluelily; Drooping agapanthus
45 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May, shaded
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
Summary
Agapanthus inapertus, the Drakensberg agapanthus, drooping agapanthus, or closed African lily, is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae, native to open grasslands, forest margins and mountainous, rocky areas of Mozambique, Eswatini (Swaziland), and South Africa (Transvaal and Natal).
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Agapanthus inapertus", CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the genus · Agapanthus
Agapanthus is a genus of plants, the only one in the subfamily Agapanthoideae of the family Amaryllidaceae. The subfamily was formerly treated as a separate family, Agapanthaceae. The family is in the monocot order Asparagales. More on Wikipedia ›
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Agapanthus", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex, listed under the family Amaryllidaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “geophyte”.
Seasons
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (725 mm of 956 mm) falls in November to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.1 °C against a yearly mean of 15.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to September.
Rain
956 mm in the median year at the habitat, 725 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 166 mm, driest month July at 11 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 777 mm to 1,225 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 968 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 956 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: 24 to 39 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 0.7 °C, the absolute minimum -3.4 °C, 76 frost nights in 44 years, 1.7 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 3.8 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 0.5 °C to 6.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 23.4 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 53 to 65% 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 +224 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.
Group. Listed under the family Amaryllidaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “geophyte”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.
Climate across the habitat
Habitat months, southern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 17 °C in Jun and Jul to 23 °C in Jan, Feb and Dec; mean nightly low from 4 °C in Jun and Jul to 14 °C in Jan and Feb. The cold quarter, May to Jul, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 2 months in a row that tie for it. 956 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 102 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was -3.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 23 / 21–26 | 23 / 21–26 | 22 / 20–25 | 21 / 18–23 | 19 / 16–21 | 17 / 14–19 | 17 / 14–19 | 19 / 17–21 | 21 / 20–24 | 22 / 20–25 | 22 / 21–25 | 23 / 21–26 |
| Night °C | 14 / 12–17 | 14 / 11–17 | 13 / 10–15 | 10 / 7–13 | 7 / 4–9 | 4 / 1–6 | 4 / 1–6 | 6 / 3–8 | 8 / 6–10 | 10 / 8–13 | 12 / 10–14 | 13 / 11–16 |
| Rain mm | 166 / 138–210 | 145 / 104–221 | 110 / 86–156 | 54 / 38–72 | 19 / 14–26 | 13 / 8–19 | 11 / 5–16 | 15 / 9–23 | 30 / 20–40 | 89 / 67–110 | 144 / 116–164 | 160 / 127–199 |
| DLI | 39 / 37–42 | 38 / 36–40 | 34 / 32–35 | 30 / 29–31 | 27 / 26–28 | 24 / 23–26 | 26 / 24–27 | 30 / 28–32 | 35 / 33–38 | 36 / 33–40 | 37 / 35–40 | 39 / 37–42 |
| RH % | 65 / 61–66 | 65 / 61–67 | 64 / 60–66 | 61 / 58–63 | 56 / 53–58 | 54 / 52–55 | 53 / 50–55 | 54 / 51–55 | 55 / 52–57 | 60 / 57–62 | 62 / 59–64 | 64 / 61–65 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Andrew Hankey, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Antoinette Eyssell Knox, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Crassula sarcocaulis Bonsai Stonecrop Photo: CC0, author not stated
Erica drakensbergensis Drakensberg Heath Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony Rebelo
Streptocarpus wilmsii Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, alanbedfordshaw
Ceropegia coddii Apocynaceae Photo: CC0, rosshawkins
Streptocarpus dunnii Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Andrew Hankey
Buddleja auriculata Weeping Sagewood Photo: CC BY, Shaun SwanepoelOther Agapanthus 4 in the reference
Agapanthus africanus Lily of the Nile Photo: CC BY, Adele SL
Agapanthus campanulatus Bell Agapanthus Photo: CC BY-SA, Nicola van Berkel
Agapanthus caulescens Stem agapanthus Photo: CC0, author not stated
Agapanthus praecox African-lily Photo: CC BY, André Nogueira Thomas Names & registers
Also known as Agapanthus hollandiae; Agapanthus weilligii. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-21gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 3 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (3 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-21climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -25.00_30.625, lapse-corrected +224 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.