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Dracaena pethera; photograph Andrew Deacon, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF CC0Andrew Deacon, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF

Dracaena pethera Byng & Christenh.

Asparagaceae · Gabon, Zaïre +6 · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

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Dracaena pethera, photograph Scott from USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDracaena pethera, photograph Crusier, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDracaena pethera, photograph Peter A. Mansfeld, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDracaena pethera, photograph Ton Rulkens from Mozambique, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDracaena pethera, photograph Ton Rulkens from Mozambique, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDracaena pethera, photograph Ton Rulkens from Mozambique, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons 13 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Coldest month, mean nightly low
18.4°C
Jul at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,188mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
33–43DLI
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, November to January and March to May (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.

From few records: 10 records in 8 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Dracaena pethera, synonym Sansevieria kirkii, also known as the star sansevieria or the snake plant, is a succulent plant native to Tanzania and the surrounding region in East Africa.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Dracaena pethera", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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 (832 mm of 1,065 mm) falls in November to January and March to May. The temperature curve is flat, 3.3 °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

1,065 mm in the median year at the habitat, 832 mm of it November to January and March to May. Wettest month April at 173 mm, driest month September at 18 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 860 mm to 1,608 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,188 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,065 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: 33 to 43 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 30, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 18.4 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 9.9 °C to 23.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.4 °C in March (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 18.4 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, July, 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 whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 66% 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 10 records in 8 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Dracaena pethera through the yearWarmest months January, February, March, April, November and December, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 18.4 °C; 1,065 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 33–43RH 55–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 8 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 / 21–2928 / 21–2928 / 21–2928 / 20–2827 / 20–2826 / 20–2725 / 20–2726 / 21–2826 / 23–3127 / 23–3228 / 22–3128 / 21–29
Night °C22 / 13–2622 / 13–2722 / 13–2622 / 13–2521 / 13–2519 / 11–2418 / 10–2419 / 11–2320 / 13–2421 / 14–2522 / 14–2523 / 13–26
Rain mm100 / 49–24182 / 34–210167 / 111–184173 / 57–411137 / 7–32435 / 1–10822 / 0–6624 / 0–5118 / 1–4052 / 10–97105 / 69–136150 / 105–206
DLI39 / 31–4240 / 32–4437 / 35–4135 / 31–3733 / 30–3633 / 31–3634 / 31–3738 / 35–4042 / 39–4443 / 41–4540 / 38–4239 / 33–41
RH %63 / 60–6663 / 60–6664 / 62–6566 / 58–6662 / 53–6558 / 51–6257 / 50–6257 / 48–6355 / 47–6357 / 47–6460 / 52–6564 / 60–65

The daily extremes were not used: the record low, 20.5 °C, is warmer than the coldest month's mean nightly low across the range, 18.4 °C, which no night series of the habitat can give. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum 20.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 22.0 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 8 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (10 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), 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 1893:4387 (-4.675, 39.375). 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 8 distinct grid cells holding 10 of the 11 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1893:4387 (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 -4.50_39.375, lapse-corrected -75 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 0 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.
NativeGabon, Zaïre, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe · 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-6.033, 38.783 · in the densest population, 20 records (67% 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 30 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 10 of them in the land cells it reads, of 11 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 24 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 19 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 30 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 pethera, photograph 1did not loadDracaena pethera, photograph 2did not loadDracaena pethera, photograph 3did not loadDracaena pethera, photograph 4did not loadDracaena pethera, photograph 5did not loadDracaena pethera, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Scott from USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Crusier, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Peter A. Mansfeld, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Ton Rulkens from Mozambique, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (3).

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

Senna splendida Senna splendida Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Carlos Otávio GussoniMimosa caesalpiniifolia Mimosa caesalpiniifolia Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Paulo NogueiraByrsonima sericea Byrsonima sericea Malpighiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Carlos HenriqueGonatopus boivinii Gonatopus boivinii Giraffe's Knees Photo: CC BY, Tom FieldTurnera subulata Turnera subulata Cuban Buttercup Photo: CC BY, Ashley Nahomy Beitia Vangueria randii Rubiaceae

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 Dracaena pethera var. pulchra; Sansevieria aubrytiana; Sansevieria kirkii; Sansevieria kirkii var. kirkii; Sansevieria kirkii var. pulchra and 1 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
Byng & Christenh.
Native to
Gabon, Zaïre, Kenya +5
Wild records
30 in range · 24 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; 8 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (6 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 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 -4.50_39.375, lapse-corrected -75 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the record low, 20.5 °C, is warmer than the coldest month's mean nightly low across the range, 18.4 °C, which no night series of the habitat can give, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 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 8 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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