Desmidorchis speciosa (N.E.Br.) Plowes
English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.
2 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar, shaded
- Apr, shaded
- May, shaded
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov, shaded
- Dec, shaded
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (357 mm of 508 mm) falls in March to May and November to December. The temperature curve is flat, 3.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.
Rain
508 mm in the median year at the habitat, 357 mm of it March to May and November to December. Wettest month April at 112 mm, driest month July at 9 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 412 mm to 968 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 605 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 508 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: 34 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 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 14.5 °C, the absolute minimum 11.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.5 °C in August (across the grid cells of the range 14.7 °C to 23.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 31.6 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 50 to 58% 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 -591 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
Mean daily high from 27 °C in Jun, Jul and Aug to 32 °C in Feb and Mar; mean nightly low from 18 °C in Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep to 21 °C in Mar. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 4 months in a row that tie for it. 508 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Apr. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 28 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 11.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 30 / 28–34 | 32 / 29–35 | 32 / 28–35 | 29 / 27–34 | 28 / 25–34 | 27 / 25–34 | 27 / 24–34 | 27 / 25–35 | 29 / 27–34 | 30 / 27–34 | 29 / 27–33 | 29 / 27–33 |
| Night °C | 19 / 17–22 | 20 / 17–23 | 21 / 18–24 | 20 / 18–23 | 19 / 17–23 | 18 / 15–24 | 18 / 14–23 | 18 / 15–23 | 18 / 16–23 | 19 / 16–23 | 20 / 16–23 | 20 / 16–22 |
| Rain mm | 38 / 14–106 | 27 / 16–70 | 71 / 49–122 | 112 / 71–174 | 56 / 33–107 | 14 / 5–64 | 9 / 2–100 | 10 / 3–96 | 13 / 4–60 | 40 / 14–66 | 69 / 32–141 | 49 / 20–137 |
| DLI | 40 / 37–41 | 42 / 39–44 | 41 / 39–43 | 38 / 34–40 | 36 / 31–40 | 34 / 28–37 | 34 / 27–37 | 36 / 30–40 | 39 / 35–44 | 40 / 36–44 | 38 / 35–40 | 37 / 36–39 |
| RH % | 51 / 46–60 | 50 / 45–57 | 52 / 48–58 | 58 / 53–62 | 57 / 52–62 | 55 / 48–60 | 54 / 48–59 | 53 / 48–58 | 52 / 47–57 | 52 / 48–59 | 55 / 51–61 | 54 / 48–61 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the keys of the names Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 3571596 (Sarcocodon speciosus N.E.Br., 0 records), 3571892 (Desmidorchis speciosa (N.E.Br.) Plowes, 44 records), 3577268 (Caralluma speciosa (N.E.Br.) N.E.Br., 31 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: Rafael Medina, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Commiphora campestris Burseraceae Photo: CC BY, Elliot Greiner
Euphorbia heterochroma Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Frank Vincentz Kedrostis pseudogijef Cucurbitaceae Commiphora oblongifolia Burseraceae 
Euphorbia tenuispinosa Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Frank Vincentz
Delonix elata White Gul Mohur Photo: CC BY, Julien RenoultOther Desmidorchis 4 in the reference
Desmidorchis foetida Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Salicyna Desmidorchis penicillata Apocynaceae 
Desmidorchis retrospiciens Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Rod Waddington from Kergunyah, Australia Names & registers
Also known as Sarcocodon speciosus; Ceropegia codonoides; Caralluma speciosa; Caralluma oxyodonta; Caralluma codonoides. (WCVP, RBG Kew)
The record
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.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Desmidorchis speciosa (N.E.Br.) Plowes (plant_name_id 504453), read from Kew's names filegbif.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 askedgbif.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 askedgbif.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 askedwcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-22this 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; 0 records of GBIF's key 3571596, Sarcocodon speciosus N.E.Br. (Kew's file holds it as Sarcocodon speciosus N.E.Br. (synonym under Desmidorchis speciosa (N.E.Br.) Plowes)): GBIF occurrence search API; 44 records of GBIF's key 3571892, Desmidorchis speciosa (N.E.Br.) Plowes (Kew's file holds it as Desmidorchis speciosa (N.E.Br.) Plowes (accepted)): the GBIF download; 31 records of GBIF's key 3577268, Caralluma speciosa (N.E.Br.) N.E.Br. (Kew's file holds it as Caralluma speciosa (N.E.Br.) N.E.Br. (synonym under Desmidorchis speciosa (N.E.Br.) Plowes)): the GBIF downloadclimate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 1.00_35.625, lapse-corrected -591 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 986781-1, POWO 986781-1wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22inat.photos.wild not askedinat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.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 askedcommons answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.