Species
+

Albuca abyssinica Jacq.

Asparagaceae

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.

Summary

Albuca abyssinica, known in Tanzania by the common names koyosa and kitunguu pori, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to tropical regions in Africa. The flowers grow terminal racemes 20 – 30 cm long with the plant achieving heights between 60 and 100 cm. Its bulb has been used to treat inflammation and for dressing wounds.

Text from Wikipedia, “Albuca abyssinica”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Albuca

Albuca is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae. The genus is distributed mainly in southern and eastern Africa, with some species occurring in northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Plants of the genus are known commonly as slime lilies.

Text from Wikipedia, “Albuca”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
Jacq.
Native to
Burkina, Nigeria, Burundi +23
Wild records
288 in range· 227 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Feb, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
699mm/yr
8 wet months · peak Jan 108 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–39DLI
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 Albuca, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (November to April at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 699 mm a year, wettest January at 108 mm, driest July at 9 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 8.8 °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 Albuca abyssinica Welw.; Albuca abyssinica Welw. ex Baker; Albuca allenae Baker; Albuca angolensis Welw.; Albuca asclepiadea Chiov. and 36 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Albuca, 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 summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (November to April at the habitat, southern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (557 mm of 699 mm) falls in November to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.7 °C against a yearly mean of 20.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to October.

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 699 mm a year, wettest January at 108 mm, driest July at 9 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

699 mm a year at the habitat, 557 mm of it November to April. Wettest month January at 108 mm, driest July at 9 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 477 mm to 1601 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: 30 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 39 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

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 8.8 °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 8.8 °C, the absolute minimum 6.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells 5.4 °C to 19.2 °C), warmest day 27.2 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.8 °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: 54 to 60% 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 23 °C in Jul to 27 °C in Feb; mean night from 12 °C in Jul to 17 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 699 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 262 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 6.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°50°40.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)6.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 30–39RH 54–60 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 262 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 °C27 / 21–3127 / 22–3127 / 22–3126 / 21–3025 / 20–2824 / 18–2823 / 18–2825 / 20–2926 / 21–3127 / 22–3127 / 22–3027 / 21–30
Night °C17 / 11–2117 / 12–2217 / 13–2216 / 12–2115 / 9–2113 / 6–2012 / 5–1913 / 7–1915 / 10–2016 / 11–2016 / 11–2117 / 11–21
Rain mm108 / 10–27796 / 13–22787 / 48–22276 / 28–20934 / 5–16512 / 1–959 / 0–13711 / 1–15720 / 3–13656 / 15–13492 / 17–16598 / 14–250
DLI38 / 32–4238 / 33–4336 / 32–4234 / 28–4032 / 26–3830 / 23–3631 / 24–3633 / 27–3937 / 32–4439 / 31–4538 / 33–4237 / 32–43
RH %60 / 47–6860 / 46–6759 / 50–6760 / 52–6857 / 49–6655 / 46–6454 / 45–6454 / 44–6454 / 44–6356 / 47–6359 / 49–6559 / 49–66

Each figure is the median across the 262 grid cells holding the 284 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 2348:4241 (-27.425, 32.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.5 °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 262 distinct grid cells holding the 284 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2348:4241 (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 -27.50_31.875, lapse-corrected -169 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 167 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.
NativeBurkina, Nigeria, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Rwanda, Zaïre, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Saudi Arabia, Yemen
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-24.875, 30.875 · in the densest population, 82 records (28% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 288 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 227 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2984 km away. 2 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 4 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 288 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Albuca abyssinicaAlbuca abyssinicaAlbuca abyssinicaAlbuca abyssinicaAlbuca abyssinicaAlbuca abyssinicaAlbuca abyssinicaAlbuca abyssinica

Photographs: Susan Brown, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Mahomed Desai, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (7).

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 Albuca abyssinica, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

An Ethnobotanical Study of Medicinal Plants in Amaro Woreda, Ethiopia
Fisseha Mesfin, Talemos Seta, Abreham Assefa (2014) · Ethnobotany Research and Applications
An Ethnobotanical Study of Medicinal Plants in Asgede Tsimbila District, Northwestern Tigray, Northern Ethiopia
Zenebe Girmay, Zerihun Mohammed, Solomon Zewdie (2012) · Ethnobotany Research and Applications
Ethnoveterinary medicinal plants: Preparation and application methods by traditional healers in selected districts of southern Ethiopia
Gebremedhin Romha, Tewedros Ayalew Dejene, Lidet Befkadu Telila, Daniel Fekadu Bekele (2015) · Veterinary World
The Vegetation of Mount Nyiru (Samburu District, Kenya): A Checklist and Syntaxonomical Survey
Benny Bytebier, Rainer W. Bussmann (2000) · Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society and National Museum
Anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities of solvent fractions of the leaves of Moringa stenopetala Bak. (Moringaceae) in mice models
Yohannes Tamrat, Teshome Nedi, Solomon Assefa, Tilahun Teklehaymanot (2017) · BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Medicinal plants species used by herbalists in the treatment of snakebite envenomation in Uganda
David Fred Okot, Godwin Anywar, Jane Namukobe, Robert Byamukama (2020) · Tropical Medicine and Health
New records for the flora of Cameroon, including a new species of Psychotria (Rubiaceae) and range extensions for some rare species
Olivier Lachenaud, Vincent Droissart, Steven Dessein, Tariq Stévart (2013) · Plant Ecology and Evolution
Further notes on the flora of the southern coastal mountains of Yemen
Norbert Kilian, Peter Hein, Mohamed Ali Hubaishan (2004) · Willdenowia - Annals of the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem
Ethnobotanical study of Hyacinthaceae and non-hyacinthaceous geophytes in selected districts of Malawi
Elizabeth Mwafongo, Inger Nordal, Zacharia L. K. Magombo, Brita Stedje (2010) · Ethnobotany Research and Applications
Potential of Malawi’s medicinal plants in Covid-19 disease management: A review
Ibrahim Chikowe, Andrew G. Mtewa, David Tembo, Dallas J. Smith (2021) · Malawi Medical Journal
Two new species of Multiclavula (lichenized basidiomycetes) from savanna soils in Rwanda (East Africa)
Eberhard Fischer, Damien Ertz, Dorothee Killmann, Emmanuël Sérusiaux (2007) · Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society

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 Albuca 166 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 answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild 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)
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 answered
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 29 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.