Species
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Ammocharis tinneana (Kotschy & Peyr.) Milne-Redh. & Schweick.

Amaryllidaceae

Climate known 16 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

Ammocharis tinneana, commonly known as the northern ammocharis, is a flowering plant and geophyte belonging to the family Amaryllidaceae and is native to Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Central African Republic, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Chad, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

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

About the genus · Ammocharis

Ammocharis is a small genus from sub-Saharan Africa, in the family Amaryllidaceae which includes seven species distributed in Africa. The plant grows as above-ground bulb, preferring seasonally wet, hot, sandy soils and full sun.

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

Family
Amaryllidaceae
Described by
(Kotschy & Peyr.) Milne-Redh. & Schweick.
Native to
Burundi, Central African Republic, Rwanda +15
Wild records
164 in range· 81 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Oct, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
657mm/yr
8 wet months · peak Apr 101 mm (CHELSA)
Light
31–42DLI
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 Ammocharis, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, November to April at the habitat (not shifted). Habitat rain 657 mm a year, wettest April at 101 mm, driest July at 8 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10.7 °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 Crinum ammocharoides Baker; Crinum bainesii Baker; Crinum cordofanum Kotschy & Peyr.; Crinum lastii Baker; Crinum ondongense Baker and 7 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Ammocharis, 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, November to April at the habitat (not shifted).

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 (524 mm of 657 mm) falls in November to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.5 °C against a yearly mean of 22.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

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 657 mm a year, wettest April at 101 mm, driest July at 8 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

657 mm a year at the habitat, 524 mm of it November to April. Wettest month April at 101 mm, driest July at 8 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 397 mm to 1079 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: 31 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 42 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 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

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 10.7 °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 10.7 °C, the absolute minimum 8.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 13.4 °C in July (across the envelope cells 7.9 °C to 18.3 °C), warmest day 30.1 °C in October (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.7 °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: 51 to 58% 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 24 °C in Jul to 30 °C in Oct; mean night from 13 °C in Jul to 19 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 657 mm of rain a year, most in Apr. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 128 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 8.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°33.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)8.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 31–42RH 51–58 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 128 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 °C28 / 25–3229 / 26–3229 / 26–3128 / 25–3026 / 24–2925 / 22–2924 / 22–2927 / 23–3029 / 24–3230 / 25–3429 / 24–3328 / 24–32
Night °C19 / 14–2119 / 14–2119 / 15–2217 / 15–2115 / 12–2014 / 9–1913 / 8–1814 / 10–1916 / 13–1918 / 14–2019 / 14–2119 / 14–21
Rain mm89 / 19–18878 / 16–17984 / 46–156101 / 19–18054 / 3–10712 / 1–518 / 0–559 / 0–5614 / 2–6136 / 17–10983 / 43–14789 / 33–168
DLI40 / 36–4342 / 35–4440 / 36–4236 / 32–3932 / 30–3831 / 27–3631 / 27–3536 / 31–3841 / 35–4441 / 35–4639 / 33–4538 / 34–45
RH %57 / 52–6355 / 50–6356 / 52–6358 / 49–6356 / 47–6354 / 46–6052 / 45–6051 / 42–5951 / 41–5852 / 44–5956 / 48–6357 / 52–63

Each figure is the median across the 128 grid cells holding the 144 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 1834:4302 (-1.725, 35.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.4 °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 128 distinct grid cells holding the 144 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1834:4302 (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 -1.50_35.000, lapse-corrected +55 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1693 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.
NativeBurundi, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-1.598, 34.882 · in the densest population, 82 records (50% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 164 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 81 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2460 km away. 20 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 164 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ammocharis tinneanaAmmocharis tinneanaAmmocharis tinneanaAmmocharis tinneanaAmmocharis tinneanaAmmocharis tinneanaAmmocharis tinneanaAmmocharis tinneana

Photographs: Robert Taylor, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (5); Riana Fourie, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (3).

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

Floristic composition and plant community types of Agama Forest, an Afromontane Forest in Southwest Ethiopia
Admassu Addi, Soromessa Teshome, Kelebessa Ensermu, Dibaba Abyot (2016) · Journal of Ecology and the Natural Environment
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
Alkaloids from Ammocharis tinneana
Alex K. Machocho, S.C. Chhabra, Françesc Viladomat, Carles Codina (1999) · Phytochemistry
Foraging strategies, diet and competition in olive baboons
Robert A. Barton (1990) · St Andrews Research Repository (St Andrews Research Repository)
Important Medicinal and Food Taxa (Orders and Families) in Kenya, Based on Three Quantitative Approaches
Fredrick Munyao Mutie, Yuvenalis Morara Mbuni, Peninah Cheptoo Rono, Elijah Mbandi Mkala (2023) · Plants
Tunicate bulb size variation in monocots explained by temperature and phenology
Cody Coyotee Howard, Nico Cellinese (2020) · Ecology and Evolution
The Occurrence and Bioactivities of Amaryllidaceae Alkaloids from Plants: A Taxonomy-Guided Genera-Wide Review
G. David Lin, Pinky Vishwakarma, Paul N. Smith, Rachel Li (2025) · Plants
Alkaloids from three South African Crinum species.
E.E. Elgorashi (2000) · ResearchSpace (University of KwaZulu-Natal)

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 Ammocharis 6 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 16 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.