Crassula helmsii (Kirk) Cockayne
Australian stonecrop, Australian swamp stonecrop, Australian swamp stonecrop, Crassule des étangs
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Crassula helmsii, known as swamp stonecrop or New Zealand pigmyweed, is an aquatic or semiterrestrial species of succulent plant in the family Crassulaceae. Originally found in Australia and New Zealand, it has been introduced around the world. In the United Kingdom, this plant is one of five introduced invasive aquatic plants that were banned from sale from April 2014, the first ban of its kind in the country. It is on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility's Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species of eleven countries.
Text from Wikipedia, “Crassula helmsii”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Crassula
Crassula is a genus of succulent plants containing about 200 accepted species, including the popular jade plant. They are members of the stonecrop family (Crassulaceae) and are native to many parts of the globe, but cultivated varieties originate almost exclusively from species from the Eastern Cape of South Africa.
Text from Wikipedia, “Crassula”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Bulliarda recurva Hook.fil.; Crassula helmsii (Kirk) A.Berger; Crassula recurva (Hook.fil.) Ostenf.; Tillaea helmsii Kirk; Tillaea recurva (Hook.fil.) Hook.fil. and 1 more.
Cultivation
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Crassula, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.
Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (November to June in the northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (510 mm of 682 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 10.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to June.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 682 mm a year, wettest August at 70 mm, driest February at 39 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
682 mm a year at the habitat, 510 mm of it May to December. Wettest month August at 70 mm, driest February at 39 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 480 mm to 934 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 45 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 45 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).
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.
Warmth and air Cold floor 2.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 2.1 °C, the absolute minimum -2.2 °C, 19 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.2 °C in July (across the envelope cells 1.9 °C to 8.6 °C), warmest day 24.5 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 25 / 20–28 | 24 / 21–28 | 22 / 19–25 | 18 / 16–21 | 15 / 13–17 | 13 / 10–14 | 12 / 9–14 | 13 / 11–15 | 15 / 13–17 | 17 / 15–20 | 20 / 17–23 | 22 / 18–26 |
| Night °C | 14 / 12–16 | 14 / 12–16 | 13 / 11–15 | 10 / 8–13 | 8 / 5–11 | 6 / 3–9 | 5 / 2–9 | 6 / 3–9 | 7 / 5–10 | 9 / 6–11 | 11 / 9–13 | 12 / 10–15 |
| Rain mm | 40 / 23–68 | 39 / 22–67 | 45 / 28–66 | 48 / 31–72 | 57 / 37–84 | 68 / 45–108 | 69 / 42–113 | 70 / 43–110 | 68 / 42–92 | 63 / 40–82 | 59 / 36–85 | 56 / 34–85 |
| DLI | 45 / 43–49 | 41 / 37–44 | 31 / 29–35 | 22 / 20–25 | 15 / 13–18 | 12 / 10–14 | 13 / 12–16 | 18 / 17–22 | 25 / 24–30 | 34 / 33–38 | 41 / 40–45 | 44 / 43–48 |
| RH % | 56 / 52–60 | 57 / 52–61 | 58 / 54–61 | 59 / 56–61 | 62 / 59–64 | 63 / 60–66 | 63 / 60–66 | 61 / 58–64 | 59 / 56–62 | 58 / 55–60 | 58 / 54–60 | 57 / 53–60 |
Each figure is the median across the 147 grid cells holding the 159 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2557:6510 (-37.875, 145.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -2.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 147 distinct grid cells holding the 159 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2557:6510 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -38.00_145.625, lapse-corrected -49 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 154 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Colin Meurk, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Paul Cook, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Sean Hartnett, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Daniel Cahen, some rights reserved (CC BY).
Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Crassula helmsii, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Acacia mearnsii Black wattle
Drosera hookeri Grassland Sundew
Drosera peltata Droseraceae
Drosera aberrans scented sundew
Grevillea rosmarinifolia rosemary grevillea
Drosera gunniana DroseraceaeOther Crassula 207 in the reference
Crassula acinaciformis Giant Crassula
Crassula alata Three-parted Crassula
Crassula alba grassland red crassula Crassula alcicornis Antler-leaf Crassula
Crassula alpestris Sand-coated Crassula
Crassula alsinoides Crassulaceae
Crassula alstonii Crassulaceae
Crassula alticola Crassulaceae
Crassula ammophila Crassulaceae
Crassula anso-lerouxiae Crassulaceae
Crassula aphylla Vernal Pool Stonecrop all 208 ›History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 91 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.





