Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Lampranthus scaber; photograph (c) Wessel Pretorius, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Wessel Pretorius, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2024-09-07

Lampranthus scaber (L.) N.E.Br.

Rough Brightfig

Aizoaceae · Cape Provinces · listed by its family as a cactus or succulent

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Lampranthus scaber, photograph (c) Vicente Lopes, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lampranthus scaber, photograph (c) Vicente Lopes, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lampranthus scaber, photograph (c) Vicente Lopes, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lampranthus scaber, photograph (c) Jacques van der Merwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Lampranthus scaber, photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Lampranthus scaber, photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 31 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
3.9°C
Record low 1.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
978mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
16–53DLI
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 winters: the rain comes November to March (May to September at the habitat), read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Lampranthus scaber, commonly known as the rough brightfig, is a succulent belonging to the genus Lampranthus. The species is endemic to the Western Cape and occurs from Tulbagh to the Cape Flats and Piketberg. The plant is part of the fynbos and renosterveld vegetation and has an extent of occurrence of less than 20 km². Currently, only five of the original fourteen subpopulations remain, as the plant has lost habitat to wheat cultivation and the establishment of vineyards. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Lampranthus scaber", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Lampranthus

Lampranthus is a genus of succulent plants in the family Aizoaceae, which are native to Namibia and the Cape Provinces of South Africa in southern Africa.

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

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent, listed under the family Aizoaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “succulent subshrub”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (690 mm of 974 mm) falls in May to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 12.8 °C against a yearly mean of 16.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

974 mm in the median year at the habitat, 690 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 166 mm, driest month February at 24 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 490 mm to 1,850 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 978 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 974 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: 16 to 53 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 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 55).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 3.9 °C, the absolute minimum 1.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 6.4 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 4.6 °C to 8.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.8 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.9 °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: 54 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 -55 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 family Aizoaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “succulent subshrub”. 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 Lampranthus scaber through the yearWarmest month February, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 6.4 °C; 974 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°38.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER1.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 16–53RH 54–61%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 31 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 °C28 / 24–3129 / 25–3227 / 24–3024 / 21–2620 / 19–2117 / 16–1816 / 15–1717 / 16–1819 / 17–2022 / 20–2424 / 21–2727 / 23–29
Night °C16 / 15–1716 / 15–1715 / 14–1613 / 11–1410 / 9–127 / 6–106 / 5–97 / 5–98 / 7–1011 / 10–1213 / 12–1415 / 14–16
Rain mm26 / 16–5724 / 13–4336 / 21–6273 / 38–139130 / 65–242164 / 83–302166 / 86–298133 / 71–24897 / 49–18352 / 27–12041 / 22–9132 / 18–74
DLI53 / 52–5547 / 47–4938 / 38–4027 / 27–2920 / 19–2116 / 16–1718 / 17–1923 / 22–2431 / 31–3242 / 41–4349 / 49–5153 / 52–54
RH %54 / 51–5855 / 51–5955 / 52–5957 / 53–6059 / 55–6159 / 56–6159 / 57–6161 / 57–6261 / 57–6157 / 54–5956 / 53–5955 / 52–58
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 31 grid cells holding the 59 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 2471:3971 (-33.575, 18.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 1.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.4 °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 31 distinct grid cells holding 59 of the 59 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2471:3971 (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 -33.50_18.750, lapse-corrected -55 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 142 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-33.763, 18.834 · in the densest population, 101 records (95% of those in range)
Kew's description“succulent subshrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 106 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 59 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 54 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 26 km away. 47 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 106 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Lampranthus scaber, photograph 1did not loadLampranthus scaber, photograph 2did not loadLampranthus scaber, photograph 3did not loadLampranthus scaber, photograph 4did not loadLampranthus scaber, photograph 5did not loadLampranthus scaber, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Vicente Lopes, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Jacques van der Merwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2).

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

Gladiolus watsonius Gladiolus watsonius Red Afrikaner Photo: CC BY, Jeremy GilmoreBabiana blanda Babiana blanda Pink Bobejaantjie Photo: CC BY-SA, Cecile RouxLeucadendron lanigerum Leucadendron lanigerum Shale Conebush Photo: CC BY-SA, douglaseustonbrownBabiana melanops Babiana melanops Blackeye Bobbejaantjie Photo: CC BY, Morten RossSparaxis villosa Sparaxis villosa Blue-cap Photo: CC BY, Adele SLCephalophyllum parviflorum Cephalophyllum parviflorum Tygerberg Starfig Photo: CC BY-SA, Jacques van der Merwe

Other Lampranthus 28 in the reference

Lampranthus aduncus Lampranthus aduncus Bakoven Brightfig Photo: CC BY-SA, James DeaconLampranthus aureus Lampranthus aureus Golden Brightfig Photo: CC0, author not statedLampranthus bicolor Lampranthus bicolor Aizoaceae Photo: CC BY, Adele SLLampranthus blandus Lampranthus blandus Aizoaceae Photo: CC BY, Henry de LangeLampranthus ceriseus Lampranthus ceriseus Cerise Brightfig Photo: CC0, author not statedLampranthus coccineus Lampranthus coccineus Redflush Photo: CC0, author not statedLampranthus coralliflorus Lampranthus coralliflorus Aizoaceae Photo: CC BY, Ren HoekstraLampranthus debilis Lampranthus debilis Runty Brightfig Photo: CC BY-SA, Brian du PreezLampranthus emarginatoides Lampranthus emarginatoides Abundant Brightfig Photo: CC0, author not statedLampranthus emarginatus Lampranthus emarginatus Clusterleaf Brightfig Photo: CC BY, Adele SLLampranthus explanatus Lampranthus explanatus Sandveld Brightfig Photo: CC BY, De Waal HugoLampranthus falcatus Lampranthus falcatus Sickle Brightfig Photo: CC BY, Justin Ponder all 29 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Mesembryanthemum scabrum. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Aizoaceae
Described by
(L.) N.E.Br.
Native to
Cape Provinces
Wild records
106 in range · 54 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 -33.50_18.750, lapse-corrected -55 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 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
Wikimedia Commons commons 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

Opening your plants…