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Hypoxis baurii; photograph Morten Ross, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYMorten Ross, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Hypoxis baurii Baker

Red-star

Hypoxidaceae · Cape Provinces, Lesotho +4 · listed by its genus as a bulb, tuber or caudex

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Hypoxis baurii, photograph Sunčana Bradley, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFHypoxis baurii, photograph Sunčana Bradley, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFHypoxis baurii, photograph Peter Warren, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFHypoxis baurii, photograph Peter Warren, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFHypoxis baurii, photograph Peter Warren, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFHypoxis baurii, photograph Peter Warren, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-3.5°C
Record low -11.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
22°C
Jan, Feb and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,084mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–42DLI
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

Hypoxis baurii, the red star or rosy posy, is a species of flowering plant in the family Hypoxidaceae which is native to South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland, where it grows in damp meadows. Growing to no more than 10 cm (3.9 in) tall and broad, it is a herbaceous perennial with lanceolate, sharply folded, hairy grey-green leaves, and pale or deep pink star-shaped flowers throughout summer. The upturned flowers are held on slender, short straight stalks. The tepals are of equal length and held alternately in two ranks.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Hypoxis baurii", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex, listed under the genus Hypoxis in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tuberous geophyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (792 mm of 1,078 mm) falls in November to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 16.6 °C against a yearly mean of 12.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

1,078 mm in the median year at the habitat, 792 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 189 mm, driest month July at 13 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 886 mm to 1,391 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,084 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,078 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: 23 to 42 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 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -3.5 °C, the absolute minimum -11.2 °C, 1,495 frost nights in 44 years, 34.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 0.2 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range -4.1 °C to 3.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.3 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.5 °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: 50 to 63% 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 +104 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 Hypoxis in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tuberous geophyte”. 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 Hypoxis baurii through the yearWarmest months January, February and December, mean daily high 22 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 0.2 °C; 1,078 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.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost31.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-11.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 23–42RH 50–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 101 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 °C22 / 19–2422 / 18–2421 / 17–2319 / 14–2116 / 12–1914 / 9–1714 / 9–1716 / 11–1919 / 15–2220 / 15–2221 / 17–2322 / 18–24
Night °C12 / 9–1512 / 8–1511 / 6–137 / 3–104 / -1–71 / -4–40 / -4–42 / -2–65 / 1–88 / 4–1010 / 5–1211 / 7–14
Rain mm189 / 149–251171 / 130–231133 / 103–17058 / 44–7420 / 15–2817 / 12–2313 / 8–2030 / 22–4045 / 34–61103 / 85–125132 / 112–171167 / 137–219
DLI41 / 36–4338 / 35–4034 / 31–3530 / 27–3126 / 24–2823 / 21–2525 / 23–2729 / 26–3135 / 31–3737 / 32–3940 / 34–4242 / 36–45
RH %63 / 59–6763 / 60–6761 / 58–6557 / 55–6153 / 51–5651 / 48–5450 / 47–5251 / 48–5453 / 50–5758 / 55–6260 / 56–6461 / 57–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 101 grid cells holding the 210 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 2395:4185 (-29.775, 29.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -11.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.3 °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 101 distinct grid cells holding 210 of the 210 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2395:4185 (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 -30.00_29.375, lapse-corrected +104 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1805 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, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern 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-29.585, 29.29 · in the densest population, 249 records (81% of those in range)
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 308 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 210 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 116 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 18 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 98 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 308 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Hypoxis baurii, photograph 1did not loadHypoxis baurii, photograph 2did not loadHypoxis baurii, photograph 3did not loadHypoxis baurii, photograph 4did not loadHypoxis baurii, photograph 5did not loadHypoxis baurii, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Sunčana Bradley, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Peter Warren, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (4).

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

Moraea huttonii Moraea huttonii Gold Tulp Photo: CC0, author not statedBowkeria verticillata Bowkeria verticillata Natal Shellflower Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloZaluzianskya microsiphon Zaluzianskya microsiphon Short-tube Drumsticks Photo: CC BY, Morten RossWatsonia lepida Watsonia lepida Lonesome Watsonia Photo: CC BY, Morten RossPhygelius aequalis Phygelius aequalis Cape Fuschia Photo: CC BY, Presha SoogrimHelichrysum ecklonis Helichrysum ecklonis Ecklon's everlasting Photo: CC BY-SA, Andrew Hankey

Other Hypoxis 14 in the reference

Hypoxis angustifolia Hypoxis angustifolia Narrow Stargrass Photo: CC BY, Morten RossHypoxis colchicifolia Hypoxis colchicifolia Broad-Leaved Hypoxis Photo: CC BY-SA, Dylan LeonardHypoxis costata Hypoxis costata Kharatsa Stargrass Photo: CC BY-SA, Suvarna Parbhoo MohanHypoxis decumbens Hypoxis decumbens Hypoxidaceae Photo: CC BY, Felipe HortonHypoxis hemerocallidea Hypoxis hemerocallidea African Stargrass Photo: CC BY, Sunčana BradleyHypoxis hirsuta Hypoxis hirsuta Yellow star-grass Photo: CC BY, Brandon CorderHypoxis hygrometrica Hypoxis hygrometrica Golden Weather-grass Photo: CC BY, Carl Ramirez Hypoxis milloides Hypoxidaceae Hypoxis nervosa Hypoxis nervosa Hypoxidaceae Photo: CC BY, Thomas MesaglioHypoxis obtusa Hypoxis obtusa Mr Burchell's Hypoxis Photo: CC0, author not statedHypoxis parvula Hypoxis parvula Mini White Stargrass Photo: CC0, author not statedHypoxis rigidula Hypoxis rigidula Silver-Leaved Star-Flower Photo: CC BY, Peter Le Roux all 15 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Rhodohypoxis baurii; Rhodohypoxis baurii var. baurii. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Hypoxidaceae
Described by
Baker
Native to
Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal +3
Wild records
308 in range · 116 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 -30.00_29.375, lapse-corrected +104 m at 6.5 °C/km
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
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 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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