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Angraecum distichum; photograph LaBosystE ENS, CC BY-SA, via GBIF CC BY-SALaBosystE ENS, CC BY-SA, via GBIF

Angraecum distichum Lindl.

Orchidaceae · Benin, Ghana +19 · listed by its genus as an orchid

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Angraecum distichum, photograph LaBosystE ENS, CC BY-SA, via GBIFAngraecum distichum, photograph LaBosystE ENS, CC BY-SA, via GBIFAngraecum distichum, photograph Gilles Dauby, CC BY-SA, via GBIFAngraecum distichum, photograph Michael Wolf, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsAngraecum distichum, photograph Averater, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsAngraecum distichum, photograph El Funcionario, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 10 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
14.6°C
Record low 11.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
31°C
Jan, Feb and Mar at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,792mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
24–34DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, April to July and September to October (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 11 records in 11 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Angraecum distichum is a species of comet orchid that is found across sub-Saharan and tropical Africa.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Angraecum distichum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as an orchid, listed under the genus Angraecum in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “epiphytic subshrub”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,210 mm of 1,671 mm) falls in April to July and September to October. The temperature curve is flat, 3.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,671 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,210 mm of it April to July and September to October. Wettest month June at 233 mm, driest month January at 19 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,257 mm to 2,290 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,792 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,671 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: 24 to 34 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 14.6 °C, the absolute minimum 11.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 20.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 16.6 °C to 23.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 31.1 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.6 °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: 63 to 71% 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 +56 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 Angraecum in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “epiphytic subshrub”. 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 11 records in 11 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Angraecum distichum through the yearWarmest months January, February and March, mean daily high 31 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 20.4 °C; 1,671 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°15°20°25°30°35°40°36.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER11.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 24–34RH 63–71%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 11 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 °C31 / 28–3131 / 29–3231 / 29–3130 / 28–3129 / 27–3028 / 26–2926 / 25–2926 / 25–2927 / 26–2928 / 26–2929 / 26–3029 / 27–30
Night °C20 / 17–2322 / 19–2322 / 20–2422 / 21–2422 / 20–2421 / 20–2321 / 19–2321 / 19–2321 / 19–2321 / 19–2321 / 19–2321 / 17–23
Rain mm19 / 11–12042 / 27–137121 / 85–159176 / 125–213211 / 159–260233 / 75–341144 / 51–299137 / 56–371226 / 147–332220 / 152–313112 / 41–22930 / 12–153
DLI33 / 31–3734 / 32–3734 / 32–3632 / 29–3431 / 28–3227 / 25–3124 / 23–3224 / 22–3227 / 24–3130 / 27–3230 / 27–3331 / 28–34
RH %63 / 47–6664 / 52–6765 / 60–6867 / 64–7170 / 62–7271 / 64–7370 / 64–7369 / 64–7471 / 65–7469 / 65–7367 / 62–7265 / 53–69
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 11 grid cells holding the 11 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 1650:3386 (7.475, -10.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.8 °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 11 distinct grid cells holding 11 of the 11 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1650:3386 (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 7.50_-10.625, lapse-corrected +56 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 340 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.
NativeBenin, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Uganda, Angola · 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-0.083, 10.583 · in the densest population, 52 records (43% of those in range)
Kew's description“epiphytic subshrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 121 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 11 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 113 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 69 km away. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 110 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 4° block of the 121 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Angraecum distichum, photograph 1did not loadAngraecum distichum, photograph 2did not loadAngraecum distichum, photograph 3did not loadAngraecum distichum, photograph 4did not loadAngraecum distichum, photograph 5did not loadAngraecum distichum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: LaBosystE ENS, CC BY-SA, via GBIF (2); Gilles Dauby, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Michael Wolf, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Averater, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; El Funcionario, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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

Diaphananthe pellucida Orchidaceae Entandrophragma utile Utile Marantochloa leucantha Marantochloa leucantha Marantaceae Photo: CC BY, Zac PetersonHarungana madagascariensis Harungana madagascariensis Dragon's-blood-tree Photo: CC BY-SA, Evert MatermanPolyspatha paniculata Polyspatha paniculata Commelinaceae Photo: Public domain, C.B. Clarke in Alphonse Pyramus de… Polystachya paniculata Orchidaceae

Other Angraecum 18 in the reference

Angraecum calceolus Angraecum calceolus Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, chrisdtAngraecum didieri Angraecum didieri Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, OrchiAngraecum eburneum Angraecum eburneum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Borja FierroAngraecum eichlerianum Angraecum eichlerianum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, MaëlisAngraecum elephantinum Angraecum elephantinum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, OrchiAngraecum erectum Angraecum erectum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Wilferd Duckitt from Darling, South… Angraecum florulentum Orchidaceae Angraecum germinyanum Angraecum germinyanum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, sunoochi from Sapporo, Hokkaido, JapanAngraecum infundibulare Angraecum infundibulare Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, NasserHalawehAngraecum leonis Angraecum leonis Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedAngraecum longicalcar Angraecum longicalcar Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Arne and Bent Larsen, Haarby, DenmarkAngraecum magdalenae Angraecum magdalenae Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Andrew Hankey all 19 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Aeranthes disticha; Angraecum imbricatum; Angraecum poppendickianum; Dolabrifolia disticha; Dolabrifolia poppendickiana and 5 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
Lindl.
Native to
Benin, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau +18
Wild records
121 in range · 113 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; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 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 7.50_-10.625, lapse-corrected +56 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Angraecum distichum Lindl. (the item's: IPNI 616084-1, POWO 616083-1)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 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
Wikimedia Commons commons 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 20 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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