Species
+

Gerrardanthus macrorhizus Harv. ex Benth. & Hook.fil.

Cucurbitaceae

Climate known 8 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

Gerrardanthus macrorhizus, also known as bigfoot, is a species of plant native to southern Africa. It is a popular pot plant.

Text from Wikipedia, “Gerrardanthus macrorhizus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Gerrardanthus

Gerrardanthus is a genus of flowering plants native to tropical Africa and South Africa, first described by William Henry Harvey (1811–1866), and named in honor of William Tyrer Gerrard, botanical collector in Natal and Madagascar in the 1860s.

Text from Wikipedia, “Gerrardanthus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Cucurbitaceae
Described by
Harv. ex Benth. & Hook.fil.
Native to
Mozambique, Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal +1
Wild records
22 in range· 19 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Feb, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
925mm/yr
11 wet months · peak Jan 128 mm (CHELSA)
Light
20–37DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Gerrardanthus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 925 mm a year, wettest January at 128 mm, driest June at 24 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Gerrardanthus macrorhizus Harv.; Gerrardanthus megarhizus Decne. & Harv.; Gerrardanthus portentosus Naudin; Gerrardanthus portentosus Naudin ex T.Durand.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Gerrardanthus, 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: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (677 mm of 925 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.8 °C against a yearly mean of 19.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

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 925 mm a year, wettest January at 128 mm, driest June at 24 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

925 mm a year at the habitat, 677 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 128 mm, driest June at 24 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 737 mm to 1111 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: 20 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 37 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

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 10.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 10.0 °C, the absolute minimum 7.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 11.2 °C in July (across the envelope cells 7.1 °C to 14.6 °C), warmest day 26.3 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.0 °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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 66% 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 21 °C in Jul to 26 °C in Feb; mean night from 11 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 925 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 22 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 7.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°28.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)7.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 20–37RH 55–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 22 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 25–3026 / 25–2926 / 25–2924 / 24–2723 / 22–2521 / 20–2421 / 20–2322 / 21–2523 / 21–2623 / 21–2624 / 23–2725 / 24–29
Night °C20 / 16–2220 / 17–2219 / 15–2117 / 13–2015 / 10–1812 / 7–1511 / 7–1513 / 9–1515 / 10–1616 / 12–1817 / 13–1919 / 15–21
Rain mm128 / 105–139115 / 95–12992 / 78–12253 / 43–7337 / 22–4424 / 16–4029 / 13–4138 / 22–5167 / 35–86101 / 79–117117 / 99–136124 / 85–135
DLI36 / 35–3835 / 34–3731 / 30–3227 / 26–2723 / 22–2420 / 19–2222 / 21–2325 / 25–2629 / 29–3132 / 30–3335 / 33–3737 / 35–39
RH %66 / 60–6766 / 61–6765 / 61–6663 / 60–6459 / 56–6056 / 53–5855 / 53–5857 / 55–6060 / 58–6263 / 59–6564 / 60–6565 / 60–67

Each figure is the median across the 22 grid cells holding the 22 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 2412:4207 (-30.625, 30.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 7.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.7 °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 22 distinct grid cells holding the 22 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2412:4207 (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 -30.50_30.625, lapse-corrected +212 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 336 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMozambique, Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland
Kew's description“climbing caudex geophyte” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-29.625, 30.625 · in the densest population, 15 records (68% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 22 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 19 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 34 km away. 2 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 22 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Gerrardanthus macrorhizusGerrardanthus macrorhizusGerrardanthus macrorhizusGerrardanthus macrorhizusGerrardanthus macrorhizusGerrardanthus macrorhizusGerrardanthus macrorhizus

Photographs: (c) Mahomed Desai, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); Mahomed Desai, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (4).

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 Gerrardanthus macrorhizus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Aktivitas Sitotoksik pada Sel MCF-7 dari Tumbuhan Indonesia untuk Pengobatan Tradisional Kanker Payudara
Sari Haryanti, Yuli Widiyastuti (2017) · Media Penelitian dan Pengembangan Kesehatan
Sieve elements rapidly develop ‘nacreous walls’ following injury − a common wounding response?
Jan Knoblauch, Michael Knoblauch, Viktoriya V. Vasina, Winfried S. Peters (2019) · The Plant Journal
The complete plastome sequence of Momordica cochinchinensis (Cucurbitaceae)
Lijuan Cai, Rao Pan, Qun Zeng, Xiaoyan Zhang (2023) · Mitochondrial DNA Part B
The aqueous extract of Gerrardanthus macrorhizus caudex enhanced doxorubicin activity in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells
Sari Haryanti, Yuli Widiyastuti, Slamet Wahyono (2018) · Indonesian Journal of Biotechnology
UJI AKTIVITAS ANTI BAKTERI EKSTRAK ETANOLIK UMBI AKAR BATU (Coccinia grandis L.Voight) TERHADAP BAKTERI SALMONELLA SP
Rizal Maarif Rukmana, Rahmat Budi Nugroho, Dwi Admani Wisnumurti (2020) · Bioeksperimen Jurnal Penelitian Biologi
STUDI IN SILICO SENYAWA AKTIF PADA DAUN SAMBILOTO (ANDROGRAPHIS PANICULATA) SEBAGAI INHIBITOR ANDROGEN PADA KANKER PROSTAT
Belva Annora Alfita Davinali, Manuela Joy Stephanie, Hasya Qanita Ali Hanifa, Khanna Ragita Aurelia (2024) · Kartika Jurnal Ilmiah Farmasi
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Exploration Of The Potential Of Phaleria Macrocarpa Against Colon Cancer Using A Network Pharmacology Approach Network Pharmacology-Based Exploration of Phaleria Against Colon Cancer
Laili Khusnul Khotimah, Restia Prasisila Hidayanti Nawangsasih, Diana Magdalena Larassati, Syalzhabilla Yasmin (2026) · International Journal of Health Engineering and Technology
Potential Antidiabetic Activity of Annona muricata Leaves as Enzyme α-amylase Inhibitor: In Silico Study
Zahra Putri Handirana, Tresna Lestari, Richa Mardianingrum, Ruswanto Ruswanto (2026) · Jurnal Kimia VALENSI
Unveiling the anticancer efficacy of kaempferol from moringa oleifera against breast cancer: Insights from an in silico investigation
Maharani Retna Duhita, Vina virlana Azhar (2026) · Research Repository Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim (University of Southampton)
Gerrardanthus macrorhizus Harv. ex Benth. & Hook. fil.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Gerrardanthus macrorhizus Harv. ex Benth. & Hook. fil.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo

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.

Other Gerrardanthus 4 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 4 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.