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Apteranthes burchardii; photograph Juanillo1976, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAJuanillo1976, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Apteranthes burchardii (N.E.Br.) Plowes

Apocynaceae · Morocco, Canary Is.

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

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Apteranthes burchardii, photograph Frank Vincentz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsApteranthes burchardii, photograph Frank Vincentz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsApteranthes burchardii, photograph Frank Vincentz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsApteranthes burchardii, photograph MMFE, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsApteranthes burchardii, photograph Julius Senegal, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 6 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
14.9°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
157mm
2 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
22–47DLI
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 winters: the rain comes November to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Apteranthes burchardii is a fleshy and superficially cactus-like plant that belongs to the genus Apteranthes in the subfamily Asclepiadoideae of the family Apocynaceae. Its basionym is Caralluma burchardii. This species is native to the Canary Islands archipelago and adjacent Morocco.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Apteranthes burchardii", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (128 mm of 157 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 17.5 °C against a yearly mean of 19.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

157 mm in the median year at the habitat, 128 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 38 mm, driest months (3 at 1 mm); 5 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 138 mm to 206 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 157 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 157 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 47 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 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 14.9 °C in January and February (across the grid cells of the range 12.7 °C to 16.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.7 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 14.9 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January and February, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 66% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Apteranthes burchardii through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest months January and February, mean nightly low 14.9 °C; 157 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter01020304050mm rainDLI 22–47RH 59–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 39 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C18 / 17–1918 / 17–1920 / 17–2120 / 18–2121 / 19–2222 / 20–2524 / 21–2725 / 22–2724 / 23–2623 / 22–2521 / 20–2219 / 18–20
Night °C15 / 13–1715 / 13–1616 / 14–1716 / 15–1717 / 16–1819 / 19–2020 / 20–2121 / 21–2221 / 20–2220 / 18–2118 / 16–1916 / 14–18
Rain mm25 / 21–2924 / 21–3419 / 16–237 / 5–102 / 2–411 / 0–114 / 3–413 / 11–2122 / 19–3238 / 34–48
DLI23 / 23–2430 / 29–3138 / 37–3843 / 42–4446 / 45–4647 / 46–4847 / 46–4744 / 43–4539 / 38–3932 / 31–3325 / 24–2622 / 21–23
RH %59 / 57–6060 / 58–6259 / 57–6261 / 58–6362 / 58–6464 / 60–6766 / 60–6965 / 60–6964 / 60–6763 / 60–6560 / 58–6260 / 59–62

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 36% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 12.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 25.6 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 39 grid cells holding the 156 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 1229:3322 (28.525, -13.875). 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 39 distinct grid cells holding 156 of the 156 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1229:3322 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 36% land and none of the 11 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 28.50_-13.750, lapse-corrected +105 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 131 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.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 9472170 (Ceropegia burchardii (N.E.Br.) Bruyns, 265 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeMorocco, Canary Is. · 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 marker28.428, -14.047 · in the densest population, 157 records (98% of those in range)
Kew's description“succulent subshrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 161 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 156 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 28 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 24 km away. 9 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 5 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.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 9472170 (Ceropegia burchardii (N.E.Br.) Bruyns): Kew's file holds it as Ceropegia burchardii (N.E.Br.) Bruyns (synonym under Apteranthes burchardii (N.E.Br.) Plowes); 265 records, from GBIF's download.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 161 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Apteranthes burchardii, photograph 1did not loadApteranthes burchardii, photograph 2did not loadApteranthes burchardii, photograph 3did not loadApteranthes burchardii, photograph 4did not loadApteranthes burchardii, photograph 5did not load

Photographs: Frank Vincentz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (3); MMFE, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Julius Senegal, 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.

Helianthemum canariense Helianthemum canariense Cistaceae Photo: CC BY, Sean HartnettPolycarpaea nivea Polycarpaea nivea Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC BY, Leonard Worthington Zygophyllum fontanesii Zygophyllaceae Limonium tuberculatum Limonium tuberculatum Plumbaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Sara NavarroBupleurum handiense Bupleurum handiense Apiaceae Photo: CC BY, Christoph MoningReichardia famarae Reichardia famarae Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Christoph Moning

Other Apteranthes 2 in the reference

Apteranthes europaea Apteranthes europaea Apocynaceae Photo: Public domain, NanosanchezApteranthes joannis Apteranthes joannis Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY, Georges Jansoone (JoJan)

Names & registers

Also known as Ceropegia burchardii; Caralluma burchardii. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Apocynaceae
Described by
(N.E.Br.) Plowes
Native to
Morocco, Canary Is.
Wild records
161 in range · 28 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 2026-10-22
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Apteranthes burchardii (N.E.Br.) Plowes (plant_name_id 220652), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 265 records of GBIF's key 9472170, Ceropegia burchardii (N.E.Br.) Bruyns (Kew's file holds it as Ceropegia burchardii (N.E.Br.) Bruyns (synonym under Apteranthes burchardii (N.E.Br.) Plowes)): the GBIF download
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 28.50_-13.750, lapse-corrected +105 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (36% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 986800-1, POWO 986800-1
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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