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Plectranthus oertendahlii; photograph Dinkum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons CC0Dinkum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Plectranthus oertendahlii T.C.E.Fr.

Candleplant; Silverleaf Spurflower; Silvervein Spurflower; Swedish Ivy

Lamiaceae · KwaZulu-Natal

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Plectranthus oertendahlii, photograph Dinkum, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsPlectranthus oertendahlii, photograph Begoniaceae.reddit, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsPlectranthus oertendahlii, photograph SAplants, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPlectranthus oertendahlii, photograph SAplants, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPlectranthus oertendahlii, photograph SAplants, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPlectranthus oertendahlii, photograph SAplants, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
6.4°C
Record low 3.0 °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)
1,143mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–36DLI
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 September (October 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.

From few records: 13 records in 4 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Plectranthus oertendahlii is a species of flowering plant in the sage and mint family, Lamiaceae. Common names include silverleaf spurflower, Swedish ivy, Oertendahl's spurflower, November lights and Brazilian coleus, though it is native to eastern South Africa rather than Brazil. Plectranthus oertendahlii and the cultivar 'Uvongo' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Plectranthus oertendahlii", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Plectranthus

Plectranthus is a genus of about 85 species of flowering plants from the mint/sage family, Lamiaceae, found mostly in southern and tropical Africa and Madagascar. Common names include spur-flower. Plectranthus species are herbaceous perennial plants, rarely annuals or soft-wooded shrubs, sometimes succulent; sometimes with a tuberous base.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (814 mm of 1,148 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.2 °C against a yearly mean of 19.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Rain

1,148 mm in the median year at the habitat, 814 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 145 mm, driest month May at 38 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,102 mm to 1,213 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,143 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,148 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 36 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 6.4 °C, the absolute minimum 3.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 10.8 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 10.1 °C to 13.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.2 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.4 °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 68% 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 +41 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 13 records in 4 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Plectranthus oertendahlii through the yearWarmest months January, February and March, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 10.8 °C; 1,148 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°33.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER3.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 20–36RH 55–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 4 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 / 24–2525 / 25–2625 / 24–2523 / 23–2422 / 22–2320 / 20–2120 / 20–2121 / 20–2121 / 21–2121 / 21–2223 / 22–2324 / 23–24
Night °C19 / 19–2120 / 19–2119 / 18–2017 / 16–1914 / 13–1611 / 11–1411 / 10–1312 / 12–1414 / 13–1515 / 15–1717 / 16–1818 / 18–20
Rain mm145 / 141–153129 / 121–136130 / 122–13872 / 68–7738 / 36–4040 / 38–4441 / 37–4451 / 49–5592 / 88–98125 / 121–132144 / 139–151141 / 136–148
DLI35 / 35–3734 / 33–3531 / 30–3126 / 26–2723 / 22–2320 / 20–2021 / 21–2225 / 25–2529 / 28–2931 / 31–3235 / 34–3636 / 35–38
RH %68 / 66–6968 / 66–6967 / 65–6864 / 64–6559 / 57–6055 / 54–5755 / 54–5658 / 57–5963 / 62–6366 / 64–6666 / 64–6767 / 65–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 4 grid cells holding the 13 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 2415:4205 (-30.775, 30.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.5 °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 4 distinct grid cells holding 13 of the 13 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2415:4205 (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 -31.00_30.000, lapse-corrected +41 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 434 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.
NativeKwaZulu-Natal · 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-30.711, 30.272 · in the densest population, 19 records (100% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 19 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 13 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 6 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 11 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 6 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 19 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Plectranthus oertendahlii, photograph 1did not loadPlectranthus oertendahlii, photograph 2did not loadPlectranthus oertendahlii, photograph 3did not loadPlectranthus oertendahlii, photograph 4did not loadPlectranthus oertendahlii, photograph 5did not loadPlectranthus oertendahlii, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Dinkum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons; Begoniaceae.reddit, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons; SAplants, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (4).

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

Caputia medley-woodii Caputia medley-woodii Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Hlengiwe MtshaliSyncolostemon rotundifolius Syncolostemon rotundifolius Rounded-leaf Pink Plume Photo: CC BY, Sunčana Bradley Raphionacme palustris Apocynaceae Helichrysum populifolium Helichrysum populifolium Poplar Everlasting Photo: CC BY, Sunčana BradleyStreptocarpus formosus Streptocarpus formosus Pondo Streptocarpus Photo: CC BY-SA, Andrew Hankey Ceropegia australis Apocynaceae

Other Plectranthus 15 in the reference

Plectranthus ambiguus Plectranthus ambiguus Pincushion Spurflower Photo: CC0, author not statedPlectranthus chimanimanensis Plectranthus chimanimanensis Chimanimani Spurflower Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloPlectranthus ciliatus Plectranthus ciliatus Speckled spur-flower Photo: CC BY, Bruce CalvertPlectranthus ecklonii Plectranthus ecklonii Ecklon spurflower Photo: CC BY, Caroline VogetPlectranthus elegans Plectranthus elegans Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloPlectranthus ernstii Plectranthus ernstii Bonsai Mint Photo: CC BY-SA, Frank VincentzPlectranthus fruticosus Plectranthus fruticosus Forest Spurflower Photo: CC BY, jeanjacquesgodonPlectranthus grallatus Plectranthus grallatus Drakensberg Spurflower Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloPlectranthus lucidus Plectranthus lucidus Shiny Spurflower Photo: CC BY, Henry de LangePlectranthus malvinus Plectranthus malvinus Mauve Spurflower Photo: CC BY, Caroline VogetPlectranthus purpuratus Plectranthus purpuratus Cliff Spurflower Photo: CC BY, Sunčana BradleyPlectranthus saccatus Plectranthus saccatus Stoep Jacaranda Photo: CC BY, Caroline Voget all 16 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
T.C.E.Fr.
Native to
KwaZulu-Natal
Wild records
19 in range · 6 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; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 -31.00_30.000, lapse-corrected +41 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 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 nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
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 9 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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