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Pavonia praemorsa; photograph (c) Henry de Lange, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Henry de Lange, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-04-11

Pavonia praemorsa (L.f.) Cav.

Yellow Mallow; Yellow Pavonia; Yellow Swampmallow

Malvaceae · Cape Provinces

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Pavonia praemorsa (L.f.) Cav.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (L.fil.) Cav.

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Pavonia praemorsa, photograph (c) Henry de Lange, some rights reserved (CC BY)Pavonia praemorsa, photograph (c) Henry de Lange, some rights reserved (CC BY)Pavonia praemorsa, photograph (c) Henry de Lange, some rights reserved (CC BY)Pavonia praemorsa, photograph (c) Henry de Lange, some rights reserved (CC BY)Pavonia praemorsa, photograph (c) Henry de Lange, some rights reserved (CC BY)Pavonia praemorsa, photograph (c) Henry de Lange, some rights reserved (CC BY) 48 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
6.6°C
Record low 4.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Jan, Feb and Mar at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
663mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
18–43DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Pavonia praemorsa, commonly referred to as yellow mallow, and sometimes as yellow pavonia, shell flower, butter bits and yellow butter bits is a species of flowering shrub in the mallow family. It is native to the southern coast of South Africa, and produces bright yellow flowers, which bloom and die over the course of a single day. It is drought-resistant and can survive low temperatures, despite mainly growing in the subtropics. Its flowers are also attractive to multiple pollinators.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Pavonia praemorsa", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (492 mm of 645 mm) takes 8 months, October to April and August. Mean temperature moves 6.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: February and April to October.

Rain

645 mm in the median year at the habitat, 492 mm of it October to April and August. Wettest month November at 78 mm, driest month July at 32 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 565 mm to 847 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 663 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 645 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: 18 to 43 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 17, 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 6.6 °C, the absolute minimum 4.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 11.4 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 7.7 °C to 13.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.4 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.6 °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 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 -117 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 Pavonia praemorsa through the yearWarmest months January, February and March, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 11.4 °C; 645 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°36.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER4.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 18–43RH 54–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 113 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 / 24–2725 / 24–2725 / 24–2623 / 22–2422 / 21–2320 / 19–2120 / 19–2120 / 19–2121 / 20–2221 / 20–2322 / 21–2424 / 23–26
Night °C19 / 16–2019 / 17–2018 / 16–1916 / 13–1814 / 11–1612 / 8–1411 / 8–1312 / 9–1413 / 10–1414 / 12–1616 / 13–1717 / 15–19
Rain mm54 / 47–10254 / 44–8165 / 58–8854 / 46–6235 / 29–4535 / 28–5132 / 27–4555 / 45–6851 / 36–6572 / 61–9878 / 60–11560 / 48–83
DLI42 / 40–4437 / 35–3931 / 31–3325 / 25–2620 / 20–2118 / 17–1819 / 19–2024 / 23–2430 / 29–3034 / 34–3640 / 39–4243 / 41–45
RH %63 / 61–6463 / 62–6563 / 62–6461 / 60–6257 / 55–5854 / 52–5554 / 52–5557 / 55–5860 / 58–6061 / 60–6262 / 61–6362 / 61–63
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 113 grid cells holding the 319 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 2461:4152 (-33.075, 27.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.3 °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 113 distinct grid cells holding 319 of the 319 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2461:4152 (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 -33.00_27.500, lapse-corrected -117 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 193 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-33.595, 26.672 · in the densest population, 346 records (97% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 358 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 319 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 66 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 9 km away. 8 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 39 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 358 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Pavonia praemorsa, photograph 1did not loadPavonia praemorsa, photograph 2did not loadPavonia praemorsa, photograph 3did not loadPavonia praemorsa, photograph 4did not loadPavonia praemorsa, photograph 5did not loadPavonia praemorsa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Henry de Lange, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

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

Rhoicissus digitata Rhoicissus digitata Veld Grape Photo: CC BY, Karen EichholzPlectranthus strigosus Plectranthus strigosus Dwarf Spurflower Photo: CC BY, Henry de LangeAloiampelos ciliaris Aloiampelos ciliaris Climbing aloe Photo: CC BY, fontotoGasteria excelsa Gasteria excelsa Blade Oxtongue Photo: CC BY, Justin PonderBulbine asphodeloides Bulbine asphodeloides Copaiba Photo: CC BY, Justin PonderHaemanthus albiflos Haemanthus albiflos Snake Lily Photo: CC BY, Andrew Gillespie

Other Pavonia 21 in the reference

Pavonia alnifolia Malvaceae Pavonia aurigloba Pavonia aurigloba Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Matias BaranzelliPavonia bahamensis Pavonia bahamensis Bahama swampbush Photo: Public domain, DaderotPavonia burchellii Pavonia burchellii Dainty Pavonia Photo: CC0, author not statedPavonia cancellata Pavonia cancellata Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Marcello Mastroianni Albuquerque AraújoPavonia candida Pavonia candida Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Erick Vélez SánchezPavonia cauliflora Pavonia cauliflora Malvaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt StüberPavonia columella Pavonia columella Pink Pavonia Photo: CC BY-SA, alanbedfordshawPavonia fruticosa Pavonia fruticosa Anamu Photo: CC BY, Brandon McCrackenPavonia hastata Pavonia hastata Spearleaf swampmallow Photo: CC BY, 岸本年郎Pavonia intermedia Pavonia intermedia Malvaceae Photo: Public domain, DaderotPavonia lasiopetala Pavonia lasiopetala Texas swamp-mallow Photo: CC BY, Gary Rogers all 22 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Abelmoschus decandrus; Hibiscus cuneifolius; Hibiscus decandrus; Hibiscus praemorsus; Lass praemorsa and 4 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
(L.f.) Cav.
Native to
Cape Provinces
Wild records
358 in range · 66 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 8169144 is Pavonia praemorsa (L.fil.) Cav.; the page links Kew's Pavonia praemorsa (L.f.) Cav., 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 answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 7 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (6 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium; 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 -33.00_27.500, lapse-corrected -117 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 6 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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