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Grewia villosa; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-05-15

Grewia villosa Willd.

Malvaceae · Cape Verde, Benin +39

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Grewia villosa, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedGrewia villosa, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedGrewia villosa, photograph (c) Rebecca Ryen-Stols, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Grewia villosa, photograph (c) Rebecca Ryen-Stols, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Grewia villosa, photograph (c) Rebecca Ryen-Stols, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Grewia villosa, photograph (c) Christine Laney, some rights reserved (CC BY) 74 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
8.6°C
Record low 4.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
31°C
Jan, Feb and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
577mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–39DLI
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
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September (November to March at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Grewia villosa is a shrub, often scrambling and hardly exceeding 4 m in height. Leaves are fairly large, serrated and heart-shaped. It grows naturally, mainly in dry habitats. It is common in most of the semi-arid parts of Eastern Africa but may now be rare in parts of its natural distribution. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Grewia villosa", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Grewia

Grewia is a large flowering plant genus in the mallow family Malvaceae, in the expanded sense as proposed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. Formerly, Grewia was placed in either the family Tiliaceae or the Sparrmanniaceae. However, these were both not monophyletic with respect to other Malvales - as already indicated by the uncertainties surrounding placement of Grewia and similar genera - and have thus been merged into the Malvaceae. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Grewia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (402 mm of 525 mm) falls in November to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.5 °C against a yearly mean of 22.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

525 mm in the median year at the habitat, 402 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 89 mm, driest months (2 at 7 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 366 mm to 1,056 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 577 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 525 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: 25 to 39 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 8.6 °C, the absolute minimum 4.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 11.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 8.7 °C to 21.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.9 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.6 °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: 52 to 57% 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 -124 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

Habitat climate of Grewia villosa through the yearWarmest months January, February and December, mean daily high 31 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 11.6 °C; 525 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.0°10°20°30°40°50°40.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER4.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 25–39RH 52–57%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 193 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 °C31 / 28–3331 / 29–3330 / 28–3328 / 27–3226 / 25–3124 / 22–2924 / 22–2826 / 25–2928 / 27–3229 / 27–3330 / 27–3331 / 28–33
Night °C21 / 17–2321 / 17–2320 / 17–2418 / 16–2415 / 12–2412 / 9–2312 / 9–2213 / 11–2216 / 13–2217 / 15–2219 / 16–2220 / 17–23
Rain mm89 / 10–11487 / 20–10968 / 43–8735 / 19–12513 / 2–1337 / 1–1597 / 0–808 / 0–7513 / 2–9040 / 12–9675 / 13–11183 / 12–109
DLI39 / 37–4538 / 36–4436 / 32–4232 / 28–3829 / 25–3625 / 23–3226 / 24–3330 / 27–3835 / 31–4436 / 32–4737 / 34–4939 / 35–49
RH %56 / 50–6056 / 52–6057 / 51–6156 / 48–6354 / 43–6453 / 42–6653 / 41–6652 / 39–6752 / 39–6654 / 41–6356 / 45–6357 / 46–62

Records on both sides of the equator: the 110 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 193 cells that remain: the 141 at least 10° south and the 52 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 193 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (283 records in those cells; 2 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are 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 2286:4228 (-24.325, 31.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.0 °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 193 distinct grid cells holding 283 of the 440 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the southern side of the equator (110 cells poleward of 10° north, 141 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2286:4228 (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 -24.50_31.250, lapse-corrected -124 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 430 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 Verde, Benin, Burkina, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Zaïre, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Caprivi Strip, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Iran, Palestine, Gulf States, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan · 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-24.375, 31.875 · in the densest population, 134 records (16% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 829 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 283 of them in the land cells it reads, of 440 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 556 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2738 km away. 9 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 389 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 829 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Grewia villosa, photograph 1did not loadGrewia villosa, photograph 2did not loadGrewia villosa, photograph 3did not loadGrewia villosa, photograph 4did not loadGrewia villosa, photograph 5did not loadGrewia villosa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Rebecca Ryen-Stols, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Christine Laney, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Lannea schweinfurthii Lannea schweinfurthii False marula Photo: CC0, author not statedRhigozum zambesiacum Rhigozum zambesiacum Eastern Rhigozum Photo: CC BY-SA, Rebecca Ryen-StolsCrabbea velutina Crabbea velutina Velvet Pricklehead Photo: CC0, author not statedCassia abbreviata Cassia abbreviata Long-pod-cassia Photo: CC BY, Patrick JacksonJusticia aconitiflora Justicia aconitiflora Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Elena_SherehoraCombretum microphyllum Combretum microphyllum Burningbush Photo: CC BY, Shedron Mukhumo

Other Grewia 18 in the reference

Grewia asiatica Grewia asiatica Phalsa Photo: CC BY, Roland MuenchGrewia australis Grewia australis Malvaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyGrewia bicolor Grewia bicolor Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Mahomed DesaiGrewia biloba Grewia biloba Bilobed grewia Photo: CC BY, 振远 王Grewia eriocarpa Grewia eriocarpa Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng ZengGrewia flava Grewia flava Brandy Bush Photo: CC0, author not statedGrewia flavescens Grewia flavescens Sandpaper Raisin Photo: CC0, author not statedGrewia hexamita Grewia hexamita Giant Raisin Photo: CC BY-SA, alanbedfordshawGrewia lasiocarpa Grewia lasiocarpa Forest Raisinbush Photo: CC BY, Sunčana BradleyGrewia latifolia Grewia latifolia Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Ethel AardvarkGrewia monticola Grewia monticola Grey Raisin Photo: CC0, author not statedGrewia occidentalis Grewia occidentalis Crossberry Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony Rebelo all 19 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Balmeda corylifolia; Grewia chaunothamnus; Grewia corylifolia; Grewia echinulata; Grewia heynei and 5 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
Willd.
Native to
Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina +38
Wild records
829 in range · 556 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; 10 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (10 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 -24.50_31.250, lapse-corrected -124 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 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 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 68 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…