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Aristea capitata; photograph Adele SL, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYAdele SL, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Aristea capitata (L.) Ker Gawl.

Blue Sceptre; Rocket Capeblue

Iridaceae · Cape Provinces · listed by its family as a bulb, tuber or caudex

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Aristea capitata, photograph Diana Studer, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFAristea capitata, photograph Diana Studer, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFAristea capitata, photograph Diana Studer, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFAristea capitata, photograph Adele SL, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFAristea capitata, photograph Adele SL, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFAristea capitata, photograph Liezl van der Merwe, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
5.0°C
Record low 2.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
998mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
16–52DLI
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 October to March (April to September at the habitat), 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

Aristea capitata, commonly known as the blue sceptre or blouvuurpyl, is a cormous geophyte belonging to the genus Aristea. The species is endemic to the Western Cape and occurs from Piketberg and the upper reaches of the Olifants River Valley to the Kleinrivier and Riviersonderend Mountains. The plant has an extent of occurrence of 23,963 km² and is part of the fynbos.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Aristea capitata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex, listed under the family Iridaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “rhizomatous geophyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (770 mm of 1,004 mm) falls in April to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 13.0 °C against a yearly mean of 15.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Rain

1,004 mm in the median year at the habitat, 770 mm of it April to September. Wettest month July at 172 mm, driest month February at 29 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 543 mm to 2,182 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 998 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,004 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: 16 to 52 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 55).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 5.0 °C, the absolute minimum 2.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 7.0 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 3.5 °C to 11.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.3 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.0 °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: 59 to 61% 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 +100 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 family Iridaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “rhizomatous geophyte”. 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 Aristea capitata through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 7.0 °C; 1,004 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.0°10°20°30°40°33.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER2.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 16–52RH 59–61%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 138 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 °C25 / 20–2925 / 21–2924 / 20–2721 / 18–2318 / 16–1916 / 14–1715 / 13–1615 / 14–1617 / 15–1819 / 16–2221 / 18–2423 / 19–27
Night °C16 / 13–1816 / 14–1815 / 13–1713 / 10–1511 / 7–148 / 4–137 / 4–128 / 4–129 / 6–1211 / 8–1413 / 9–1515 / 12–17
Rain mm31 / 21–7529 / 18–5739 / 28–8083 / 52–165125 / 56–270159 / 69–335172 / 76–341135 / 67–28896 / 45–20856 / 37–15044 / 28–11535 / 23–95
DLI52 / 48–5546 / 42–4937 / 34–4027 / 25–2919 / 18–2116 / 15–1817 / 16–1922 / 21–2431 / 29–3240 / 38–4348 / 45–5151 / 48–54
RH %59 / 52–6259 / 52–6359 / 52–6359 / 53–6360 / 55–6360 / 55–6159 / 55–6161 / 57–6261 / 56–6259 / 54–6259 / 53–6259 / 53–62
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 138 grid cells holding the 783 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 2479:3977 (-33.975, 18.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.2 °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 138 distinct grid cells holding 783 of the 783 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2479:3977 (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 -34.00_18.750, lapse-corrected +100 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 309 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.
NativeCape 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-34.073, 18.922 · in the densest population, 889 records (99% of those in range)
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 897 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 783 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 189 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 9 km away. 7 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 114 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 897 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Aristea capitata, photograph 1did not loadAristea capitata, photograph 2did not loadAristea capitata, photograph 3did not loadAristea capitata, photograph 4did not loadAristea capitata, photograph 5did not loadAristea capitata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Diana Studer, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3); Adele SL, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Liezl van der Merwe, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF.

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

Microdon dubius Microdon dubius Snake Catstailbush Photo: CC BY-SA, Jeanette ClarkeErica nudiflora Erica nudiflora Ericaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloGladiolus hirsutus Gladiolus hirsutus Small pink Afrikaner Photo: CC BY, Caroline VogetMoraea ochroleuca Moraea ochroleuca Red tulp Photo: CC BY-SA, Jeanette ClarkeGladiolus carneus Gladiolus carneus Broadleaf painted-lady Photo: CC BY-SA, Barbara le RouxCrassula fascicularis Crassula fascicularis Fragrant Crassula Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony Rebelo

Other Aristea 6 in the reference

Aristea abyssinica Aristea abyssinica Blue-Eyed Grass Photo: CC BY, Sunčana BradleyAristea africana Aristea africana African Capeblue Photo: CC BY, Adele SLAristea bakeri Aristea bakeri Tall Capeblue Photo: CC BY-SA, Nicola van BerkelAristea ecklonii Aristea ecklonii Blue corn-lily Photo: CC BY-SA, readynowAristea ensifolia Aristea ensifolia Forest Capeblue Photo: CC0, David RosenthalAristea pusilla Aristea pusilla Iridaceae Photo: CC BY, Christiaan Viljoen

Names & registers

Also known as Anomatheca capitata; Aristea bracteata; Aristea caerulea; Aristea major; Aristea spicata and 4 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Registers not checked Wikidata did not answer when this page was built, so the links it gives (POWO, IPNI, World Flora Online, Wikipedia) were not checked; any shown here are kept from an earlier build. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
GBIFWikipedia

The record

Family
Iridaceae
Described by
(L.) Ker Gawl.
Native to
Cape Provinces
Wild records
897 in range · 189 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; 126 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (104 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 19 at a herbarium, 3 at a zoo; 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 -34.00_18.750, lapse-corrected +100 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata failedasked 2026-10-21query.wikidata.org timeout (batched: Wikidata's query service, 200 GBIF keys)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 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 17 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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