Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Ilex mitis; photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2026-04-21

Ilex mitis (L.) Radlk.

African Holly; Cape holly; Waterboom

Aquifoliaceae · Guinea, Liberia +24

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Ilex mitis, photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Ilex mitis, photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Ilex mitis, photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Ilex mitis, photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Ilex mitis, photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Ilex mitis, photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 75 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
2.1°C
Record low -2.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
958mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–45DLI
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 April to October (October to April 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

Ilex mitis (commonly called Cape holly, African holly, waterboom or umDuma) is a tall, dense, evergreen tree that is indigenous to Sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar. It makes an excellent fast-growing hedge for gardens - growing tall, straight and dense.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ilex mitis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Ilex

Ilex or holly is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. Ilex has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen or deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones worldwide. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (559 mm of 778 mm) falls in October to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.1 °C against a yearly mean of 15.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to October.

Rain

778 mm in the median year at the habitat, 559 mm of it October to April. Wettest month December at 94 mm, driest month June at 37 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 544 mm to 2,246 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 958 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 778 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: 20 to 45 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 2.1 °C, the absolute minimum -2.0 °C, 19 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 5.0 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 2.1 °C to 11.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.7 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.1 °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: 55 to 61% 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 +407 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 Ilex mitis through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 5.0 °C; 778 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°frost34.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-2.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 20–45RH 55–61%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 241 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 °C25 / 22–2825 / 22–2824 / 21–2621 / 19–2419 / 17–2117 / 14–1917 / 14–1918 / 14–2120 / 16–2521 / 18–2622 / 20–2624 / 21–27
Night °C15 / 12–1715 / 12–1814 / 11–1712 / 9–159 / 6–146 / 3–125 / 2–127 / 4–129 / 6–1211 / 8–1413 / 9–1514 / 11–17
Rain mm77 / 29–21666 / 26–21685 / 37–16568 / 38–17844 / 13–25937 / 8–29041 / 3–30854 / 6–26743 / 17–20979 / 46–15990 / 41–16094 / 30–196
DLI44 / 36–5241 / 36–4635 / 32–3828 / 25–3222 / 18–3020 / 15–2820 / 16–2824 / 21–3232 / 29–3938 / 34–4243 / 35–4845 / 36–52
RH %61 / 55–6661 / 55–6661 / 55–6660 / 54–6557 / 50–6555 / 49–6455 / 47–6357 / 47–6358 / 46–6360 / 51–6461 / 54–6460 / 55–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 241 grid cells holding the 507 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 2291:4217 (-24.575, 30.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -2.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.8 °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 241 distinct grid cells holding 507 of the 507 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2291:4217 (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_30.625, lapse-corrected +407 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1299 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.
NativeGuinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Cameroon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Madagascar · 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-33.984, 18.953 · in the densest population, 273 records (23% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1165 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 507 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 732 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3757 km away. 11 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 658 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.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 3722316 (Scleroxylum mite (L.) Willd.): Kew's file holds it as Scleroxylum mite (L.) Willd. (synonym under Ilex mitis (L.) Radlk.); 0 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1165 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Ilex mitis, photograph 1did not loadIlex mitis, photograph 2did not loadIlex mitis, photograph 3did not loadIlex mitis, photograph 4did not loadIlex mitis, photograph 5did not loadIlex mitis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (6).

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

Kiggelaria africana Kiggelaria africana Wild Peach Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloMimetes splendidus Mimetes splendidus Splendid Pagoda Photo: CC BY, Ren HoekstraLeucadendron eucalyptifolium Leucadendron eucalyptifolium Gum-leaved Conebush Photo: CC BY, Karen EichholzEragrostis capensis Eragrostis capensis Cape Love Grass Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloColchicum longipes Colchicum longipes Men-in-a-Longboat Photo: CC BY, Ren HoekstraSilene undulata Silene undulata Cape catchfly Photo: CC BY, jeanjacquesgodon

Other Ilex 63 in the reference

Ilex ambigua Ilex ambigua Aquifoliaceae Photo: CC BY, Shelby Lyn SandersIlex amelanchier Ilex amelanchier Sarvis holly Photo: CC BY-SA, Jeff NiznikIlex aquifolium Ilex aquifolium English holly Photo: CC BY, Nick ButcherIlex asprella Ilex asprella Rough-leaved Holly Photo: CC BY, Zheng-An WangIlex × attenuata Ilex × attenuata Topel holly Photo: CC BY, Cedar WoodIlex bioritsensis Ilex bioritsensis Aquifoliaceae Photo: CC BY, crothfelsIlex canariensis Ilex canariensis Small-leaved holly Photo: CC0, author not statedIlex cassine Ilex cassine Dahoon Photo: CC BY-SA, Douglas Goldman Ilex chapaensis Aquifoliaceae Ilex chinensis Ilex chinensis Aquifoliaceae Photo: CC BY, りなべるIlex cinerea Ilex cinerea Aquifoliaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedIlex colchica Ilex colchica Black Sea Holly Photo: CC BY, Азат Кадиров all 64 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Ilex capensis; Ilex mitis f. camerunensis; Ilex mitis f. capensis; Ilex mitis f. kilimandscharica; Ilex mitis f. monticola and 6 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Aquifoliaceae
Described by
(L.) Radlk.
Native to
Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria +23
Wild records
1165 in range · 732 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 answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 0 records of GBIF's key 3722316, Scleroxylum mite (L.) Willd. (Kew's file holds it as Scleroxylum mite (L.) Willd. (synonym under Ilex mitis (L.) Radlk.)): GBIF occurrence search API; 100 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (99 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a zoo; 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_30.625, lapse-corrected +407 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 46 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…