Species
+

Albuca setosa Jacq.

Thick Slime-lily

Climate known 66 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 setosa is a species of small, perennial, bulbous plant in the asparagus family. It is native to the Cape Provinces and KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.

Text from Wikipedia, “Albuca setosa”, 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
Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal
Wild records
588 in range· 259 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jan, mean day; nights 16 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
721mm/yr
8 wet months · peak Jan 122 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–44DLI
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 September in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 721 mm a year, wettest January at 122 mm, driest July at 11 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 44 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -0.5 °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 affinis J.M.Wood & M.S.Evans; Albuca baurii Baker; Albuca pachychlamys Baker; Albuca patersoniae Schönland; Branciona setosa (Jacq.) Salisb. and 2 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 September in the northern hemisphere (November to March 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 (517 mm of 721 mm) falls in November to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.3 °C against a yearly mean of 16.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

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 721 mm a year, wettest January at 122 mm, driest July at 11 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

721 mm a year at the habitat, 517 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 122 mm, driest July at 11 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 331 mm to 1017 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: 23 to 44 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 44 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 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

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 -0.5 °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 -0.5 °C, the absolute minimum -4.8 °C, about 6 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.8 °C in July (across the envelope cells 0.6 °C to 10.0 °C), warmest day 26.0 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.5 °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: 50 to 59% 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 17 °C in Jun to 26 °C in Jan; mean night from 4 °C in Jul to 16 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 721 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 420 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -4.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost34.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-4.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 23–44RH 50–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 420 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 °C26 / 23–3026 / 23–3025 / 22–2823 / 19–2520 / 17–2317 / 14–2118 / 14–2120 / 16–2222 / 19–2523 / 20–2624 / 21–2725 / 23–29
Night °C16 / 12–1916 / 12–1914 / 11–1811 / 8–167 / 4–134 / 1–114 / 1–106 / 3–119 / 6–1211 / 8–1413 / 10–1615 / 11–17
Rain mm122 / 27–16199 / 27–13686 / 37–11640 / 30–6218 / 12–3915 / 7–3711 / 3–4022 / 6–4925 / 15–6473 / 28–10794 / 31–134116 / 29–150
DLI43 / 36–5140 / 35–4535 / 31–3830 / 26–3225 / 20–2823 / 18–2524 / 19–2729 / 24–3235 / 30–3939 / 32–4442 / 35–4944 / 36–52
RH %59 / 51–6659 / 52–6658 / 53–6556 / 52–6253 / 50–5851 / 50–5550 / 48–5551 / 47–5752 / 46–6056 / 49–6357 / 50–6458 / 51–65

Each figure is the median across the 420 grid cells holding the 571 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 2320:4156 (-26.025, 27.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.7 °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 420 distinct grid cells holding the 571 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2320:4156 (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 -26.00_28.125, lapse-corrected -84 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1454 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.
NativeCape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-25.875, 28.125 · in the densest population, 363 records (62% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 588 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 259 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 146 km away. 68 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 17 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 2° block of the 588 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Albuca setosaAlbuca setosaAlbuca setosaAlbuca setosaAlbuca setosaAlbuca setosaAlbuca setosaAlbuca setosa

Photographs: (c) kevin koen, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Hildegard Klein, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Andrew Hankey, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons 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 setosa, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

In Vitro Anti-Inflammatory Properties of Selected Green Leafy Vegetables
K.D.P.P. Gunathilake, K. K. D. S. Ranaweera, H.P. Vasantha Rupasinghe (2018) · Biomedicines
Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antiarthritic potential of Moringa oleifera Lam: An ethnomedicinal plant of Moringaceae family
Ammara Saleem, Mohammad Saleem, Muhammad Furqan Akhtar (2019) · South African Journal of Botany
Eco-friendly synthesis, characterization, in vitro and in vivo anti-inflammatory activity of silver nanoparticle-mediated Selaginella myosurus aqueous extract
Philippe Belle Ebanda Kedi, Francois Eya'ane Meva, L. Kotsedi, Edwige Laure Nguemfo (2018) · International Journal of Nanomedicine
A Systematic Review of the Effect of Centella asiatica on Wound Healing
Elena Arribas López, Nazanin Zand, Omorogieva Ojo, Martin J. Snowden (2022) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Zulu medicinal ethnobotany: new records from the Amandawe area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
L.S. Mhlongo, B.-E. Van Wyk (2019) · South African Journal of Botany
The chemistry and biological activity of the Hyacinthaceae
Dulcie A. Mulholland, Sianne Schwikkard, Neil R. Crouch (2013) · Natural Product Reports
In Vitro Antidiabetic Activity and Mechanism of Action of Brachylaena elliptica (Thunb.) DC
Idowu Jonas Sagbo, Maryna van de Venter, Trevor Koekemoer, Graeme Bradley (2018) · Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Green synthesis, characterization and biological activities of silver nanoparticles from alkalinized Cymbopogon citratus Stapf
O. Ajayi, Anthony Jide Afolayan (2017) · Advances in Natural Sciences Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
The Sneeuberg: A new centre of floristic endemism on the Great Escarpment, South Africa
Vincent Ralph Clark, Nigel P. Barker, Ladislav Mucina (2009) · South African Journal of Botany

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; this build: skipped
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 not askedcarried 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 14 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.