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Ajuga ophrydis; photograph (c) Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2025-10-24

Ajuga ophrydis Burch. ex Benth.

Bugle Plant

Lamiaceae · Cape Provinces, Lesotho +4

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Ajuga ophrydis, photograph (c) Nicola van Berkel, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Ajuga ophrydis, photograph (c) Nicola van Berkel, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Ajuga ophrydis, photograph (c) Nicola van Berkel, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Ajuga ophrydis, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedAjuga ophrydis, photograph (c) Marianne Le Roux, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ajuga ophrydis, photograph (c) Marianne Le Roux, some rights reserved (CC BY) 70 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-2.8°C
Record low -7.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
24°C
Jan, Feb and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
851mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–43DLI
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
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September (November to March at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Ajuga

Ajuga, also known as bugleweed, ground pine, carpet bugle, or just bugle, is a genus of flowering plants in the Ajugeae tribe of the mint family Lamiaceae. Over 60 species of annual or perennial, mostly herbaceous plants are known. They are native to Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ajuga", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (592 mm of 842 mm) falls in November to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.2 °C against a yearly mean of 14.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

842 mm in the median year at the habitat, 592 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 136 mm, driest month July at 13 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 653 mm to 1,151 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 851 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 842 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: 23 to 43 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -2.8 °C, the absolute minimum -7.1 °C, 894 frost nights in 44 years, 20.3 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 2.0 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range -1.3 °C to 8.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.3 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.8 °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: 50 to 62% 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 +136 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 Ajuga ophrydis through the yearWarmest months January, February and December, mean daily high 24 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 2.0 °C; 842 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.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost33.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-7.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 23–43RH 50–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 268 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 °C24 / 22–2624 / 21–2623 / 20–2521 / 17–2418 / 15–2216 / 12–2016 / 12–2019 / 14–2121 / 18–2421 / 19–2422 / 20–2524 / 21–26
Night °C14 / 11–1814 / 11–1812 / 9–179 / 6–156 / 3–123 / -1–92 / -1–94 / 1–107 / 4–129 / 6–1411 / 8–1613 / 10–17
Rain mm136 / 106–185115 / 88–16298 / 78–14150 / 34–7319 / 13–3517 / 9–3213 / 3–2926 / 10–4437 / 22–6788 / 69–118113 / 85–150130 / 94–173
DLI41 / 36–4539 / 34–4234 / 30–3630 / 26–3125 / 22–2823 / 19–2524 / 21–2729 / 25–3235 / 29–3838 / 31–4140 / 35–4543 / 36–47
RH %62 / 57–6762 / 57–6760 / 57–6657 / 54–6353 / 51–5852 / 50–5550 / 48–5451 / 47–5652 / 47–6057 / 52–6459 / 54–6560 / 56–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 268 grid cells holding the 420 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 2325:4160 (-26.275, 28.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -7.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.6 °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 268 distinct grid cells holding 420 of the 420 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2325:4160 (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 -26.50_28.125, lapse-corrected +136 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1695 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.
NativeCape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces · 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-29.754, 29.349 · in the densest population, 536 records (86% of those in range)
Kew's description“desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 621 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 420 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 263 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 31 km away. 201 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 2° block of the 621 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Ajuga ophrydis, photograph 1did not loadAjuga ophrydis, photograph 2did not loadAjuga ophrydis, photograph 3did not loadAjuga ophrydis, photograph 4did not loadAjuga ophrydis, photograph 5did not loadAjuga ophrydis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Nicola van Berkel, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Marianne Le Roux, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Pelargonium bowkeri Pelargonium bowkeri Geraniaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, James DeaconZantedeschia albomaculata Zantedeschia albomaculata Spotted calla lily Photo: CC BY, Hildegard KleinCyrtanthus tuckii Cyrtanthus tuckii Greentip Firelily Photo: CC0, author not statedHelichrysum cooperi Helichrysum cooperi Drakensberg Yellow everlasting Photo: CC BY, Morten RossProtea roupelliae Protea roupelliae Silver Sugarbush Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloGladiolus ecklonii Gladiolus ecklonii Sheath Glad Photo: CC BY, Morten Ross

Other Ajuga 14 in the reference

Ajuga australis Ajuga australis Australian bugle Photo: CC BY, swainsona1Ajuga chamaepitys Ajuga chamaepitys Ground-pine Photo: CC BY, Cristian BadoiuAjuga ciliata Ajuga ciliata Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Qwert1234Ajuga decumbens Ajuga decumbens Decumbent bugle Photo: CC BY, mami_t_tAjuga dictyocarpa Ajuga dictyocarpa Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, 許文俊Ajuga genevensis Ajuga genevensis Blue bugle Photo: CC BY, Edmundas GreimasAjuga iva Ajuga iva Southern Bugle Photo: CC BY, Antoine ThivolleAjuga lupulina Ajuga lupulina Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Wang.QGAjuga multiflora Ajuga multiflora Korean pyramid bugle Photo: CC BY, Tatyana PetrenkoAjuga nipponensis Ajuga nipponensis Pink-flower bugleweed Photo: CC BY, WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁Ajuga pygmaea Ajuga pygmaea Taiwan Bugle Photo: CC BY, Francisca WuAjuga pyramidalis Ajuga pyramidalis Pyramidal bugle Photo: CC BY, Antoine Thivolle all 15 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
Burch. ex Benth.
Native to
Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal +3
Wild records
621 in range · 263 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -26.50_28.125, lapse-corrected +136 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 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 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…