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Faucaria felina; photograph Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SADiego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Faucaria felina (L.) Schwantes

Cat Tigerfig; Tiger-Jaw

Aizoaceae · Cape Provinces · listed by its genus as a cactus or succulent

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Faucaria felina, photograph Abu Shawka, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsFaucaria felina, photograph Dornenwolf, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsFaucaria felina, photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsFaucaria felina, photograph Ix kimiaranda, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsFaucaria felina, photograph Ix kimiaranda, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsFaucaria felina, photograph Daderot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 11 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
3.6°C
Record low 0.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
502mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
18–46DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Faucaria felina, tiger jaws (a name it shares with Faucaria tigrina), is a species of succulent plant in the family Aizoaceae. It is endemic to the southern Cape Provinces of South Africa, but also widely spread in culture. It has a clumping habit and blooms with yellow flowers. As its synonym Faucaria candida, white tiger jaws, it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Faucaria felina", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent, listed under the genus Faucaria in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “succulent subshrub”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (372 mm of 484 mm) takes 8 months, October to April and August. Mean temperature moves 8.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: February and April to October.

Rain

484 mm in the median year at the habitat, 372 mm of it October to April and August. Wettest months (2 at 53 mm), driest month July at 26 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 415 mm to 559 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 502 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 484 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: 18 to 46 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 3.6 °C, the absolute minimum 0.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 8.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 4.5 °C to 11.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.9 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.6 °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: 53 to 60% 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 +2 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.

Group. Listed under the genus Faucaria in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “succulent subshrub”. 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 Faucaria felina through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 8.6 °C; 484 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°frost40.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER0.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075mm rainDLI 18–46RH 53–60%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 18 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
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 24–2927 / 25–2925 / 24–2724 / 22–2522 / 20–2320 / 18–2120 / 18–2120 / 19–2121 / 20–2322 / 21–2424 / 22–2625 / 23–28
Night °C17 / 15–1918 / 15–1916 / 14–1814 / 11–1612 / 8–159 / 5–139 / 5–129 / 6–1211 / 8–1312 / 10–1514 / 11–1616 / 13–18
Rain mm44 / 39–6141 / 35–5552 / 44–6042 / 35–4627 / 18–3628 / 20–3926 / 18–3242 / 24–5431 / 23–3553 / 44–5953 / 48–6545 / 41–59
DLI45 / 44–4640 / 39–4133 / 33–3426 / 26–2720 / 20–2218 / 17–1919 / 19–2124 / 24–2631 / 31–3337 / 36–3843 / 42–4446 / 45–47
RH %59 / 57–6160 / 58–6260 / 58–6260 / 55–6156 / 51–5854 / 49–5553 / 48–5556 / 50–5758 / 52–5959 / 56–6059 / 56–6059 / 56–60
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 18 grid cells holding the 21 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 2472:4110 (-33.625, 25.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.9 °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 18 distinct grid cells holding 21 of the 21 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2472:4110 (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 -33.50_25.625, lapse-corrected +2 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 242 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 · 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-33.517, 25.75 · in the densest population, 41 records (91% of those in range)
Kew's description“succulent subshrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 45 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 21 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 20 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 21 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 24 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 45 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Faucaria felina, photograph 1did not loadFaucaria felina, photograph 2did not loadFaucaria felina, photograph 3did not loadFaucaria felina, photograph 4did not loadFaucaria felina, photograph 5did not loadFaucaria felina, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Abu Shawka, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons; Dornenwolf, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Ix kimiaranda, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); Daderot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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

Albuca tortuosa Albuca tortuosa Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Andrew HankeyCaputia pyramidata Caputia pyramidata Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Nicola van BerkelFockea edulis Fockea edulis Hottentot Bread Photo: CC BY-SA, Brian du PreezJasminum angulare Jasminum angulare Oleaceae Photo: CC0, rosshawkinsMesembryanthemum bicorne Mesembryanthemum bicorne Aizoaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, kevin koenAloe africana Aloe africana African aloe Photo: CC BY, Malte Krömer

Other Faucaria 6 in the reference

Faucaria bosscheana Faucaria bosscheana Camdeboo Tigerfig Photo: CC BY, Christiaan ViljoenFaucaria britteniae Faucaria britteniae Aizoaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Brian du Preez Faucaria gratiae Aizoaceae Faucaria subintegra Faucaria subintegra Aizoaceae Photo: CC BY, DguendelFaucaria tigrina Faucaria tigrina Tiger's-jaw Photo: CC BY-SA, Nicola van BerkelFaucaria tuberculosa Faucaria tuberculosa Aizoaceae Photo: CC BY, Amada44

Names & registers

Also known as Faucaria acutipetala; Faucaria candida; Faucaria cradockensis; Faucaria crassisepala; Faucaria duncanii and 20 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Aizoaceae
Described by
(L.) Schwantes
Native to
Cape Provinces
Wild records
45 in range · 20 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -33.50_25.625, lapse-corrected +2 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 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 nothing to reportasked 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 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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