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Aloe davyana; photograph Peter Warren, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF CC0Peter Warren, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF

Aloe davyana Schönland

Highveld Spotted Aloe; Spotted aloe

Asphodelaceae · Free State, Northern Provinces · listed by its genus as a cactus or succulent

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Aloe davyana, photograph Peter Warren, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFAloe davyana, photograph Peter Warren, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFAloe davyana, photograph Peter Warren, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFAloe davyana, photograph Peter Warren, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFAloe davyana, photograph Peter Warren, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFAloe davyana, photograph Peter Warren, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-0.2°C
Record low -4.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jan, Feb and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
674mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–44DLI
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 · Aloe

Aloe is a genus containing 594 species of flowering succulent plants. The most widely known species is Aloe vera, or "true aloe", which is cultivated as a source for topical uses and dietary supplements. Other species, such as Aloe ferox, are also cultivated or harvested from the wild for similar applications.

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

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent, listed under the genus Aloe in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “succulent perennial or chamaephyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (519 mm of 675 mm) falls in November to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.0 °C against a yearly mean of 17.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

675 mm in the median year at the habitat, 519 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 123 mm, driest month July at 3 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 585 mm to 846 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 674 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 675 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 44 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -0.2 °C, the absolute minimum -4.5 °C, 195 frost nights in 44 years, 4.4 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 4.0 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 2.4 °C to 6.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.9 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.2 °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: 47 to 57% 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 -117 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 genus Aloe in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “succulent perennial or chamaephyte”. 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

Habitat climate of Aloe davyana through the yearWarmest months January, February and December, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 4.0 °C; 675 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°frost34.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-4.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 25–44RH 47–57%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 320 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 / 25–2927 / 25–2925 / 23–2723 / 21–2521 / 19–2318 / 16–2018 / 17–2021 / 20–2325 / 23–2726 / 24–2826 / 24–2827 / 25–29
Night °C16 / 15–1816 / 15–1815 / 13–1711 / 10–148 / 6–105 / 3–74 / 2–67 / 5–810 / 9–1213 / 11–1514 / 13–1616 / 14–18
Rain mm123 / 107–14599 / 83–14088 / 76–10736 / 31–5414 / 12–188 / 6–113 / 2–107 / 5–1318 / 15–2870 / 59–8292 / 73–127117 / 100–139
DLI43 / 39–4541 / 37–4236 / 33–3731 / 30–3228 / 27–2825 / 24–2627 / 25–2732 / 29–3239 / 34–3941 / 34–4242 / 36–4544 / 38–46
RH %57 / 54–6257 / 55–6256 / 55–6254 / 53–6051 / 50–5750 / 49–5549 / 48–5447 / 46–5547 / 45–5651 / 49–5954 / 51–6156 / 53–62
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 320 grid cells holding the 897 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 2316:4174 (-25.825, 28.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.9 °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 320 distinct grid cells holding 897 of the 897 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2316:4174 (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 -26.00_28.750, lapse-corrected -117 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1403 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.
NativeFree State, 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-25.929, 27.982 · in the densest population, 865 records (86% of those in range)
Kew's description“succulent perennial or chamaephyte” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1001 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 897 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 248 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 37 km away. 14 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 104 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 of the 1001 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Aloe davyana, photograph 1did not loadAloe davyana, photograph 2did not loadAloe davyana, photograph 3did not loadAloe davyana, photograph 4did not loadAloe davyana, photograph 5did not loadAloe davyana, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Peter Warren, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (6).

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

Anacampseros subnuda Anacampseros subnuda Anacampserotaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedAloe mutabilis Aloe mutabilis Blue krantz aloe Photo: CC BY-SA, TamMonsonia biflora Monsonia biflora Crane's bill Photo: CC BY-SA, Nicola van BerkelGladiolus elliotii Gladiolus elliotii Grassveld Gladiolus Photo: CC BY, Hildegard Klein Ceropegia loeseneriana Apocynaceae Cyphostemma lanigerum Cyphostemma lanigerum Vitaceae Photo: CC BY, Matthew Fainman

Other Aloe 198 in the reference

Aloe aculeata Aloe aculeata Tent Cent Aloe Photo: CC0, author not statedAloe acutissima Aloe acutissima Asphodelaceae Photo: CC BY, amantedarmaninAloe affinis Aloe affinis Spotted aloe Photo: CC BY-SA, alanbedfordshawAloe africana Aloe africana African aloe Photo: CC BY, Malte KrömerAloe albiflora Aloe albiflora Asphodelaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, S MoltenoAloe alooides Aloe alooides Graskop aloe Photo: CC BY, katuchkaAloe amudatensis Aloe amudatensis Asphodelaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Susan BrownAloe andongensis Aloe andongensis Asphodelaceae Photo: CC BY, Presha SoogrimAloe angelica Aloe angelica Wylliespoort aloe Photo: CC0, DaderotAloe antandroi Aloe antandroi Asphodelaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Andrew HankeyAloe arborescens Aloe arborescens Candelabra aloe Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloAloe arenicola Aloe arenicola Beach Aloe Photo: CC0, author not stated all 199 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Aloe davyana var. subolifera; Aloe greatheadii var. davyana. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidata

The record

Family
Asphodelaceae
Described by
Schönland
Native to
Free State, Northern Provinces
Wild records
1001 in range · 248 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; 28 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (28 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 -26.00_28.750, lapse-corrected -117 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21found by its label; its IPNI identifier 529372-1 is Kew's for Aloe davyana Schönland
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
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 8 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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