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Osyris lanceolata; photograph (c) frangp, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) frangp, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-06-11

Osyris lanceolata Hochst. & Steud.

Santalaceae · Baleares, Portugal +47

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Osyris lanceolata Hochst. & Steud.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Steud. & Hochst. ex A.DC.

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Osyris lanceolata, photograph (c) frangp, some rights reserved (CC BY)Osyris lanceolata, photograph (c) frangp, some rights reserved (CC BY)Osyris lanceolata, photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Osyris lanceolata, photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Osyris lanceolata, photograph (c) Duarte Frade, some rights reserved (CC BY)Osyris lanceolata, photograph (c) Duarte Frade, some rights reserved (CC BY) 60 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
1.7°C
Record low -3.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
621mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
15–48DLI
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 October to February and April, 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

Osyris lanceolata, also known as African sandalwood, watta bush or Camwood, is used for its scented wood and to extract essential oil. The semi-parasitic plant is found from South Africa to Zimbabwe and east Africa, including Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda; northwest Africa; the Canary Islands and the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula. It grows in rocky areas or along the margins of dry forest, but is usually not abundant in any one place.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Osyris lanceolata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (397 mm of 543 mm) falls in October to February and April, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 13.8 °C against a yearly mean of 17.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to August and October.

Rain

543 mm in the median year at the habitat, 397 mm of it October to February and April. Wettest months (2 at 78 mm), driest month July at 4 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 308 mm to 901 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 621 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 543 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 48 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 1.7 °C, the absolute minimum -3.4 °C, 43 frost nights 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 7.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 3.4 °C to 11.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.4 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.7 °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 59% 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 -389 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Osyris lanceolata through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 7.3 °C; 543 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, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost40.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-3.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 15–48RH 55–59%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 472 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 °C14 / 12–1615 / 13–1717 / 15–2019 / 17–2222 / 19–2526 / 22–2928 / 24–3228 / 24–3226 / 23–2822 / 20–2418 / 16–1915 / 13–16
Night °C7 / 3–128 / 4–129 / 6–1311 / 8–1414 / 11–1617 / 15–1919 / 17–2220 / 18–2318 / 15–2115 / 12–1811 / 8–159 / 5–13
Rain mm59 / 22–8951 / 23–8344 / 24–6555 / 28–7738 / 26–6316 / 8–284 / 2–148 / 4–2736 / 24–10676 / 37–12078 / 34–12178 / 22–153
DLI17 / 16–2723 / 21–3132 / 30–3739 / 38–4144 / 42–4648 / 37–5048 / 36–5142 / 38–4534 / 31–3725 / 23–3018 / 16–2515 / 13–24
RH %58 / 56–6257 / 55–6156 / 54–6056 / 53–6156 / 53–6255 / 52–6356 / 50–6557 / 51–6558 / 53–6458 / 57–6358 / 57–6259 / 57–63

Records on both sides of the equator: the 114 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 472 cells that remain: the 448 at least 10° north and the 24 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 472 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1385 records in those cells; 17 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 1012:3593 (39.375, -0.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.7 °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 472 distinct grid cells holding 1385 of the 1565 in-range records (17 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the northern side of the equator (448 cells poleward of 10° north, 114 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 1012:3593 (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 39.50_-0.625, lapse-corrected -389 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 0 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.
NativeBaleares, Portugal, Spain, Algeria, Morocco, Western Sahara, Canary Is., Burundi, Rwanda, Zaïre, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, China Southeast, Tibet, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam · 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 marker38.52, -0.37 · in the densest population, 842 records (46% of those in range)
Kew's description“hemiparasitic shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1840 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1385 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1565 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 456 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 702 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 275 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 3788959 (Osyris lanceolata Hochst. & Steud.): Kew's file holds it as Osyris lanceolata Hochst. & Steud. (accepted); 899 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 1840 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Osyris lanceolata, photograph 1did not loadOsyris lanceolata, photograph 2did not loadOsyris lanceolata, photograph 3did not loadOsyris lanceolata, photograph 4did not loadOsyris lanceolata, photograph 5did not loadOsyris lanceolata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) frangp, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Duarte Frade, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Retama monosperma Retama monosperma Bridal broom Photo: CC BY, Duarte FradeAsparagus albus Asparagus albus Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY, Duarte FradeOlea europaea Olea europaea Olive Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinhaCeratonia siliqua Ceratonia siliqua Carob Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinhaNarcissus obsoletus Narcissus obsoletus Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY, Karim HaddadLavandula multifida Lavandula multifida Cut-leaf lavender Photo: CC BY, Duarte Frade

Other Osyris 2 in the reference

Osyris alba Osyris alba Poet's Cassia Photo: CC BY, Flavien SaboureauOsyris compressa Osyris compressa Santalaceae Photo: CC BY, Adele SL

Names & registers

Also known as Osyris arborea; Osyris arborea var. puberula; Osyris arborea var. rotundifolia; Osyris arborea var. stipitata; Osyris nepalensis and 4 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Santalaceae
Described by
Hochst. & Steud.
Native to
Baleares, Portugal, Spain +46
Wild records
1840 in range · 456 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 2026-10-22GBIF's key 7473922 is Osyris lanceolata Steud. & Hochst. ex A.DC.; the page links Kew's Osyris lanceolata Hochst. & Steud., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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; 899 records of GBIF's key 3788959, Osyris lanceolata Hochst. & Steud. (Kew's file holds it as Osyris lanceolata Hochst. & Steud. (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search API; 36 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (14 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 22 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 39.50_-0.625, lapse-corrected -389 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 780506-1 is Kew's for Osyris lanceolata Hochst. & Steud.
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 2026-10-22read from the page's key and its other keys: 145 from GBIF's key 3788959
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 65 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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