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Psoralea pinnata; 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 · 2026-09-24

Psoralea pinnata L.

African scurfpea; Blue-pea; Dally-pine; Blue-broom

Fabaceae · Cape Provinces

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Psoralea pinnata, photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Psoralea pinnata, photograph (c) James Deacon, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Psoralea pinnata, photograph (c) Sean T, some rights reserved (CC BY)Psoralea pinnata, photograph (c) Sean T, some rights reserved (CC BY)Psoralea pinnata, photograph (c) Christina, some rights reserved (CC BY)Psoralea pinnata, photograph (c) Christina, some rights reserved (CC BY) 61 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
7.6°C
Record low 5.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
22°C
Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
937mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
16–51DLI
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 March (April 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

Psoralea pinnata is an erect evergreen shrub or small tree that grows to a height between 1.5 metres (5 ft) and 4 metres (13 ft) tall.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Psoralea pinnata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (725 mm of 951 mm) falls in April to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 14.3 °C against a yearly mean of 16.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Rain

951 mm in the median year at the habitat, 725 mm of it April to September. Wettest month July at 161 mm, driest month February at 28 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 599 mm to 2,194 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 937 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 951 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 51 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 7.6 °C, the absolute minimum 5.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 10.7 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 7.3 °C to 12.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 21.7 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 7.6 °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: 60 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 -75 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 Psoralea pinnata through the yearWarmest month February, mean daily high 22 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 10.7 °C; 951 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°5°10°15°20°25°30°35°32.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER5.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 16–51RH 60–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 66 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 °C21 / 20–2422 / 20–2521 / 19–2419 / 17–2117 / 16–1916 / 14–1715 / 14–1615 / 14–1616 / 15–1717 / 16–1919 / 17–2120 / 19–23
Night °C17 / 16–1818 / 16–1817 / 15–1715 / 13–1613 / 11–1512 / 8–1311 / 7–1311 / 8–1312 / 9–1313 / 11–1415 / 13–1616 / 14–17
Rain mm31 / 25–7728 / 23–5937 / 29–8482 / 61–166117 / 56–267149 / 67–330161 / 75–342128 / 66–29188 / 46–20754 / 39–15342 / 31–11834 / 26–98
DLI51 / 49–5246 / 42–4737 / 34–3826 / 25–2719 / 18–2016 / 15–1717 / 16–1822 / 21–2331 / 29–3240 / 38–4148 / 45–4951 / 49–52
RH %62 / 58–6462 / 59–6563 / 59–6562 / 59–6461 / 59–6360 / 58–6160 / 58–6161 / 60–6262 / 61–6261 / 59–6261 / 59–6362 / 59–63
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 66 grid cells holding the 827 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 2488:3985 (-34.425, 19.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 5.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.3 °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 66 distinct grid cells holding 827 of the 827 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2488:3985 (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 -34.50_19.375, lapse-corrected -75 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 56 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 · introduced: St.Helena, India, Myanmar, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, New Zealand North · 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-34.062, 18.42 · in the densest population, 860 records (96% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 898 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 827 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 140 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 333 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 71 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 2971500 (Indigofera enneaphylla L.): Kew's file holds it as Indigofera enneaphylla L. (illegitimate under Psoralea pinnata L.); 6 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.Records also from GBIF's key 11384159 (Anil enneaphylla (L.) Kuntze): Kew's file holds it as Anil enneaphylla Kuntze (illegitimate under Psoralea pinnata L.); 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 898 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Psoralea pinnata, photograph 1did not loadPsoralea pinnata, photograph 2did not loadPsoralea pinnata, photograph 3did not loadPsoralea pinnata, photograph 4did not loadPsoralea pinnata, photograph 5did not loadPsoralea pinnata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) James Deacon, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Sean T, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Christina, 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.

Cyclopia genistoides Cyclopia genistoides Honeybush tea Photo: CC BY-SA, magriet bCrassula coccinea Crassula coccinea Red Crassula Photo: CC BY-SA, Jacques van der MerweHermas villosa Hermas villosa Common Tinderleaf Photo: CC BY, Ian WebbAdenandra uniflora Adenandra uniflora Chinaflower Photo: CC BY, Cricket RaspetAgathosma ciliaris Agathosma ciliaris Berg Buchu Photo: CC BY-SA, Jeanette ClarkeMimetes hirtus Mimetes hirtus Marsh Pagoda Photo: CC BY, Charleen Brunke

Other Psoralea 7 in the reference

Psoralea affinis Psoralea affinis Slender Fountainbush Photo: CC0, author not statedPsoralea arborea Psoralea arborea Blue Fountain Pea Tree Photo: CC0, author not statedPsoralea bracteolata Psoralea bracteolata Strand Dottypea Photo: CC BY, Adele SLPsoralea fascicularis Psoralea fascicularis Fascicled Fountainbush Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloPsoralea fruticans Psoralea fruticans Capetown Pea Photo: CC BY, Simon TamblynPsoralea hirta Psoralea hirta Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Dave RichardsonPsoralea sericea Psoralea sericea Silky Dottypea Photo: CC BY-SA, Nicola van Berkel

Names & registers

Also known as Lotodes pinnatum; Psoralea altissima; Psoralea conferta; Psoralea decidua; Psoralea tenuifolia and 2 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Cape Provinces
Wild records
898 in range · 140 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; 6 records of GBIF's key 2971500, Indigofera enneaphylla L. (Kew's file holds it as Indigofera enneaphylla L. (illegitimate under Psoralea pinnata L.)): GBIF occurrence search API; 0 records of GBIF's key 11384159, Anil enneaphylla (L.) Kuntze (Kew's file holds it as Anil enneaphylla Kuntze (illegitimate under Psoralea pinnata L.)): GBIF occurrence search API; 73 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (33 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 31 at a herbarium, 9 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 -34.50_19.375, lapse-corrected -75 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 44 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…