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Dracaena canaliculata; photograph Augustin Soulard, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYAugustin Soulard, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Dracaena canaliculata (Carrière) Byng & Christenh.

Asparagaceae · Tanzania, Mozambique +2 · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

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Dracaena canaliculata, photograph Augustin Soulard, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFDracaena canaliculata, photograph Augustin Soulard, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFDracaena canaliculata, photograph Ton Rulkens from Mozambique, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDracaena canaliculata, photograph Ton Rulkens from Mozambique, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDracaena canaliculata, photograph Ton Rulkens from Mozambique, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDracaena canaliculata, photograph Ton Rulkens from Mozambique, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons 11 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
23.6°C
Aug at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jan, Feb, Mar and Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,388mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
31–45DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, December to March (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Cultivation

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

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (984 mm of 1,379 mm) falls in December to March. The temperature curve is flat, 3.2 °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 temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,379 mm in the median year at the habitat, 984 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 296 mm, driest month July at 13 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,281 mm to 1,440 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,388 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,379 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: 31 to 45 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 29, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 23.6 °C in August (across the grid cells of the range 21.5 °C to 23.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.0 °C in March (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 23.6 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, August, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 65% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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 Dracaena in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “rhizomatous geophyte”, “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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Dracaena canaliculata through the yearWarmest months January, February, March and April, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month August, mean nightly low 23.6 °C; 1,379 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 31–45RH 60–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 13 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 27–2828 / 27–2928 / 28–2828 / 28–2827 / 27–2726 / 25–2625 / 25–2525 / 24–2525 / 25–2626 / 25–2727 / 26–2727 / 27–27
Night °C26 / 25–2626 / 25–2626 / 25–2626 / 25–2726 / 24–2625 / 23–2524 / 22–2424 / 22–2424 / 22–2425 / 23–2525 / 24–2526 / 25–26
Rain mm296 / 224–308242 / 224–254250 / 189–262104 / 98–11640 / 36–6225 / 22–2813 / 12–1523 / 19–2831 / 27–3968 / 52–8291 / 86–100196 / 179–210
DLI38 / 38–3938 / 37–3838 / 38–3937 / 36–3834 / 32–3431 / 29–3232 / 30–3337 / 34–3741 / 39–4244 / 42–4445 / 44–4542 / 41–42
RH %65 / 64–6765 / 64–6765 / 63–6763 / 62–6561 / 60–6360 / 59–6160 / 59–6161 / 60–6262 / 61–6463 / 62–6564 / 62–6564 / 63–66

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 24% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 22.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 23.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.1 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 13 grid cells holding the 22 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 2059:4503 (-12.975, 45.175). 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 13 distinct grid cells holding 22 of the 22 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2059:4503 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 24% land and none of the 10 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -13.00_45.000, lapse-corrected +69 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 74 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.
NativeTanzania, Mozambique, Comoros, Madagascar · 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-12.915, 45.148 · in the densest population, 21 records (68% of those in range)
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 31 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 22 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 26 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 9 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 31 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Dracaena canaliculata, photograph 1did not loadDracaena canaliculata, photograph 2did not loadDracaena canaliculata, photograph 3did not loadDracaena canaliculata, photograph 4did not loadDracaena canaliculata, photograph 5did not loadDracaena canaliculata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Augustin Soulard, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Ton Rulkens from Mozambique, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (4).

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

Commiphora arafy Burseraceae Tamarindus indica Tamarindus indica Tamarind Photo: CC0, author not stated Cyphostemma glandulosopilosum Vitaceae Ceropegia mayottae Apocynaceae Peperomia boivinii Peperomia boivinii Piperaceae Photo: CC0, GemenaAngraecum leonis Angraecum leonis Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Dracaena 78 in the reference

Dracaena acaulis Dracaena acaulis Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, DracaenaworldwideDracaena aethiopica Dracaena aethiopica Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY, Matthew FainmanDracaena ajgal Dracaena ajgal Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY, bogsuckersDracaena aletriformis Dracaena aletriformis Large-leaved Dragon Tree Photo: CC BY-SA, alanbedfordshawDracaena angolensis Dracaena angolensis Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, kathi hellerDracaena angustifolia Dracaena angustifolia Suji Photo: CC BY, Cheng-Te HsuDracaena arborea Dracaena arborea Tree dracaena Photo: CC BY, Lucy Keith-DiagneDracaena arborescens Dracaena arborescens Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY, Peter A. MansfeldDracaena aubryana Dracaena aubryana Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY, Kevin FaccendaDracaena aubrytiana Dracaena aubrytiana Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, DracaenaworldwideDracaena bacularis Dracaena bacularis Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY, Peter A. MansfeldDracaena bagamoyensis Dracaena bagamoyensis Asparagaceae Photo: CC0, Martin Tlustos all 79 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Sansevieria canaliculata; Sansevieria schimperi; Sansevieria sulcata. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidata

The record

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
(Carrière) Byng & Christenh.
Native to
Tanzania, Mozambique, Comoros +1
Wild records
31 in range · 26 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 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
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; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -13.00_45.000, lapse-corrected +69 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (24% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
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 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 9 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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