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Codon royenii D.Royen

Honeybush; White Codon; White Nectarcup

Codonaceae · Cape Provinces, Namibia

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Codon royenii D.Royen: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, L.

Sow seed
Codon royenii, photograph (c) Caroline Voget, some rights reserved (CC BY)Codon royenii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCodon royenii, photograph (c) Stefan Wolmarans, some rights reserved (CC BY)Codon royenii, photograph (c) Stefan Wolmarans, some rights reserved (CC BY)Codon royenii, photograph (c) Stefan Wolmarans, some rights reserved (CC BY)Codon royenii, photograph (c) Stefan Wolmarans, some rights reserved (CC BY) 64 photographs ›

At a glance

Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
1.5°C
Record low -1.3 °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)
120mm
No month of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–56DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan, shaded
  2. Feb, shaded
  3. Mar, shaded, under 5 mm of rain
  4. Apr, shaded
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov, shaded
  12. Dec, shaded
88 mm of rain in the median year, under the rule's 120 mm, so no rainy season is read; the cooler six months are November to April (May to October at the habitat). rain and temperature rules, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Codon royenii is a species of flowering plant in the genus Codon. It is native to Namibia and the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. It is also known by the names honey bush or white nectarcup, or in Afrikaans as heuningbos and suikerkelk (meaning sugar cup).

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Codon royenii", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

Rain at the habitat is 88 mm in the median year (across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Under 120 mm the rain rule reads no rainy season, and the growing-season rule infers nothing from it. The temperature rule reads the cooler six months as May to October. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Rain

88 mm in the median year at the habitat. Wettest month April at 15 mm, driest month September at 4 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 53 mm to 280 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 120 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 88 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: 23 to 56 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 57).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 1.5 °C, the absolute minimum -1.3 °C, 31 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 6.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 4.9 °C to 9.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 31.4 °C in January and February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.5 °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: 48 to 49% 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 -97 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.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Codon royenii through the yearWarmest months January, February and March, mean daily high 31 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 6.6 °C; 88 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°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost42.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-1.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter01020304050mm rainDLI 23–56RH 48–49%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 238 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
FigureJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C31 / 29–3531 / 29–3531 / 28–3327 / 25–3024 / 21–2720 / 17–2420 / 17–2422 / 19–2625 / 22–2827 / 25–3029 / 26–3230 / 28–34
Night °C16 / 15–1917 / 15–1916 / 15–1914 / 12–1610 / 9–137 / 5–107 / 5–107 / 6–1010 / 8–1212 / 10–1413 / 12–1615 / 13–17
Rain mm7 / 3–258 / 5–3613 / 6–3315 / 9–246 / 2–375 / 1–456 / 1–445 / 0–364 / 1–236 / 2–177 / 2–126 / 2–15
DLI55 / 53–5650 / 48–5143 / 41–4434 / 31–3727 / 24–3223 / 20–2925 / 22–3131 / 27–3640 / 36–4348 / 45–5054 / 52–5556 / 55–57
RH %49 / 42–5449 / 44–5448 / 44–5249 / 43–5248 / 41–5249 / 41–5348 / 40–5249 / 39–5349 / 39–5348 / 39–5348 / 40–5349 / 41–54
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 238 grid cells holding the 401 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 2338:3953 (-26.925, 17.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.5 °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 238 distinct grid cells holding 401 of the 401 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2338:3953 (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 -27.00_17.500, lapse-corrected -97 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 775 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, Namibia · 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-28.625, 17.375 · in the densest population, 252 records (47% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 536 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 401 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 182 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 36 km away. 135 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 11045727 (Codon royenii D.Royen, 1767): Kew's file holds it as Codon royenii D.Royen (accepted); 495 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 536 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Photographs: (c) Caroline Voget, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Stefan Wolmarans, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

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

Names & registers

Also known as Codon aculeatum. (GBIF Backbone)

The record

Family
Codonaceae
Described by
D.Royen
Native to
Cape Provinces, Namibia
Wild records
536 in range · 182 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 2026-10-21GBIF's key 7782072 is Codon royenii L.; the page links Kew's Codon royenii D.Royen, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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 answeredasked 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 495 records of GBIF's key 11045727, Codon royenii D.Royen, 1767 (Kew's file holds it as Codon royenii D.Royen (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search API; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 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 -27.00_17.500, lapse-corrected -97 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 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 2026-10-21read from the page's key and its other keys: 197 from GBIF's key 11045727
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 19 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…