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Hermannia stricta; photograph (c) Stefan Wolmarans, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Stefan Wolmarans, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-03

Hermannia stricta (E.Mey. ex Turcz.) Harv.

Desert Dollsrose; Desert rose

Malvaceae · Cape Provinces

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Hermannia stricta, photograph (c) Stefan Wolmarans, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hermannia stricta, photograph (c) Stefan Wolmarans, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hermannia stricta, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedHermannia stricta, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedHermannia stricta, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedHermannia stricta, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 81 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
0.2°C
Record low -3.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
34°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
95mm
No month of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
24–57DLI
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
94 mm of rain in the median year, under the rule's 120 mm, so no rainy season is read; the cooler six months are November to April (May to October at the habitat). rain and temperature rules, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Cultivation

Seasons

Rain at the habitat is 94 mm in the median year (across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Under 120 mm the rain rule reads no rainy season, and the growing-season rule infers nothing from it. The temperature rule reads the cooler six months as May to October. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Rain

94 mm in the median year at the habitat. Wettest month February at 16 mm, driest months (4 at 4 mm); 4 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 53 mm to 139 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 95 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 94 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: 24 to 57 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 57).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 0.2 °C, the absolute minimum -3.1 °C, 131 frost nights in 44 years, 3.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 5.8 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 4.8 °C to 8.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 33.8 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.2 °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: 43 to 48% 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 +36 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 Hermannia stricta through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 34 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 5.8 °C; 94 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°frost39.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-3.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0102030mm rainDLI 24–57RH 43–48%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 87 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 °C34 / 31–3634 / 31–3632 / 29–3328 / 26–3024 / 21–2620 / 18–2220 / 18–2222 / 20–2426 / 23–2729 / 26–3031 / 28–3333 / 29–35
Night °C17 / 15–2018 / 16–2117 / 15–1914 / 12–1510 / 9–126 / 5–96 / 5–87 / 6–910 / 8–1112 / 11–1414 / 12–1716 / 14–19
Rain mm9 / 3–1716 / 5–2114 / 6–2414 / 9–195 / 3–94 / 2–94 / 2–84 / 2–84 / 2–67 / 4–106 / 2–107 / 2–15
DLI55 / 55–5650 / 49–5143 / 42–4434 / 33–3527 / 26–2824 / 22–2525 / 24–2631 / 30–3240 / 39–4148 / 47–4954 / 53–5557 / 56–57
RH %44 / 42–5345 / 43–5245 / 44–5146 / 45–5047 / 45–5048 / 46–5047 / 45–5046 / 44–5044 / 43–5044 / 42–5143 / 41–5144 / 41–52
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 87 grid cells holding the 144 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 2389:3961 (-29.475, 18.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.1 °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 87 distinct grid cells holding 144 of the 144 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2389:3961 (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 -29.50_18.125, lapse-corrected +36 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 930 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-28.375, 17.375 · in the densest population, 162 records (66% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 245 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 144 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 106 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 84 km away. 25 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 101 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 245 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Hermannia stricta, photograph 1did not loadHermannia stricta, photograph 2did not loadHermannia stricta, photograph 3did not loadHermannia stricta, photograph 4did not loadHermannia stricta, photograph 5did not loadHermannia stricta, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Stefan Wolmarans, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (4).

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

Euphorbia gariepina Euphorbia gariepina Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedAloe gariepensis Aloe gariepensis Orange River aloe Photo: CC0, author not stated Lapeirousia littoralis Spider Kabong Mesembryanthemum lignescens Aizoaceae Portulacaria namaquensis Portulacaria namaquensis Namaqua Spekboom Photo: CC BY, Nolan ExeCommiphora namaensis Commiphora namaensis Nama Commiphora Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Hermannia 14 in the reference

Hermannia alnifolia Hermannia alnifolia Malvaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, James DeaconHermannia althaeifolia Hermannia althaeifolia Woolly Dollsrose Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloHermannia althaeoides Hermannia althaeoides Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Malte KrömerHermannia angularis Hermannia angularis Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Henry de LangeHermannia coccocarpa Hermannia coccocarpa Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Hildegard KleinHermannia depressa Hermannia depressa Purpleleaf Dollsrose Photo: CC0, author not statedHermannia filifolia Hermannia filifolia Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Karen EichholzHermannia holosericea Hermannia holosericea Kwaaiman Dollsrose Photo: CC BY-SA, Brian du PreezHermannia hyssopifolia Hermannia hyssopifolia Fat Dollsrose Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloHermannia incana Hermannia incana Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, ChristinaHermannia multiflora Hermannia multiflora Malvaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloHermannia pinnata Hermannia pinnata Pinnate Dollsrose Photo: CC BY, Jared Zachary Herman all 15 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Mahernia stricta. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
(E.Mey. ex Turcz.) Harv.
Native to
Cape Provinces
Wild records
245 in range · 106 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 -29.50_18.125, lapse-corrected +36 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 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 8 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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