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Chlorophytum stenopetalum Baker

Asparagaceae · Benin, Burkina +19 · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

Photographs not checked iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
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Sow seed
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
12.8°C
Record low 9.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
37°C
Mar at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,087mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–42DLI
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 June to September, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Chlorophytum

Chlorophytum (,), colloquially referred to as the spider plants, is a genus of almost 200 species of evergreen perennial flowering plants in the Agavoideae within the family Asparagaceae. The plants are native to the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Australia, and Asia.

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

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the genus Chlorophytum in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial”, “seasonally dry tropical”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (786 mm of 1,083 mm) falls in June to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 25.8 °C against a yearly mean of 27.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

1,083 mm in the median year at the habitat, 786 mm of it June to September. Wettest month August at 241 mm, driest month January at 1 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,022 mm to 1,154 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,087 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,083 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: 28 to 42 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 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 12.8 °C, the absolute minimum 9.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 19.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 17.9 °C to 19.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 37.2 °C in March (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.8 °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: 36 to 68% 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 -47 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 Chlorophytum in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial”, “seasonally dry tropical”. 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Chlorophytum stenopetalum through the yearWarmest month March, mean daily high 37 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 19.1 °C; 1,083 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, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°41.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER9.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 28–42RH 36–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 12 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 °C34 / 33–3536 / 36–3737 / 36–3936 / 35–3834 / 33–3632 / 31–3330 / 29–3029 / 28–2930 / 29–3032 / 31–3234 / 33–3534 / 33–34
Night °C19 / 18–2021 / 20–2223 / 23–2425 / 24–2524 / 23–2523 / 22–2322 / 21–2222 / 21–2222 / 21–2222 / 22–2321 / 20–2220 / 18–20
Rain mm1 / 0–43 / 1–1219 / 9–4958 / 45–105129 / 111–138155 / 134–174186 / 152–214241 / 172–262204 / 169–22180 / 62–1085 / 2–262 / 0–6
DLI39 / 38–3941 / 40–4242 / 39–4340 / 37–4238 / 34–4034 / 30–3630 / 27–3128 / 26–2932 / 29–3437 / 32–3838 / 36–3937 / 36–37
RH %36 / 35–4236 / 34–4645 / 41–5355 / 50–5960 / 57–6163 / 61–6465 / 65–6768 / 67–6967 / 66–6761 / 59–6447 / 44–5640 / 37–48

Records on both sides of the equator: the 5 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 12 cells that remain: the 7 at least 10° north and the 5 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 12 grid cells holding the 14 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 1589:3662 (10.525, 3.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.6 °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 12 distinct grid cells holding 14 of the 19 in-range records on the northern side of the equator (7 cells poleward of 10° north, 5 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1589:3662 (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 10.50_3.125, lapse-corrected -47 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 272 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, Burkina, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Zaïre, Chad, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia · 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 marker10.2, 2.567 · in the densest population, 33 records (31% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 106 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 14 of them in the land cells it reads, of 19 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 100 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 87 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 106 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built; GBIF's observation records with coordinates hold none. Not a statement that none exist.

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

Cyphostemma junceum Vitaceae Vitellaria paradoxa Vitellaria paradoxa Shea Butter Tree Photo: CC BY, Zac PetersonStrychnos spinosa Strychnos spinosa Natal orange Photo: CC BY, ONG SOS BiodiversityStereospermum kunthianum Stereospermum kunthianum Pink-jacaranda Photo: CC BY, PhilippPiliostigma thonningii Piliostigma thonningii Camel’s foot Photo: CC0, author not statedBurkea africana Burkea africana False-Ash Photo: CC BY, Matthew Fainman

Other Chlorophytum 20 in the reference

Chlorophytum alismifolium Chlorophytum alismifolium Asparagaceae Photo: CC0, DaderotChlorophytum borivilianum Chlorophytum borivilianum Safed musli Photo: CC BY-SA, Dinesh ValkeChlorophytum bowkeri Chlorophytum bowkeri Butterfly Green Lily Photo: CC0, author not statedChlorophytum capense Chlorophytum capense Bracketplant Photo: CC BY-SA, Boy PortugueseChlorophytum comosum Chlorophytum comosum Spider plant Photo: CC BY, Thomas MesaglioChlorophytum cooperi Chlorophytum cooperi Common Green Lily Photo: CC BY-SA, Antoinette Eyssell Knox Chlorophytum filipendulum Asparagaceae Chlorophytum graminifolium Chlorophytum graminifolium Grass Green Lily Photo: CC BY, Cricket RaspetChlorophytum holstii Chlorophytum holstii Asparagaceae Photo: CC0, DaderotChlorophytum krookianum Chlorophytum krookianum Giant Chlorophytum Photo: CC0, author not stated Chlorophytum lancifolium Asparagaceae Chlorophytum laxum Chlorophytum laxum Pongol Sword Photo: CC BY, Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya all 21 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
Baker
Native to
Benin, Burkina, Ghana +18
Wild records
106 in range · 100 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 10.50_3.125, lapse-corrected -47 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 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 nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 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 22 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…