65 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr, shaded
- May, shaded
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
Summary
Psychotria capensis, the bird-berry, is a southern African evergreen shrub or small tree. It belongs to a genus which is used medicinally in many regions, 'Psychotria' being from the Greek for 'rejuvenating', in reference to the healing properties of certain species. Kew lists some 2,000 species of Psychotria growing throughout the warmer regions of both hemispheres, but only two of them occur in southern Africa, namely P. capensis and P. zombamontana.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Psychotria capensis", CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the genus · Psychotria
Psychotria is a large genus of flowering plants in the coffee family Rubiaceae, with over 1,600 species. The genus has a pantropical distribution and members of the genus are small understorey trees in tropical forests. Some species are endangered or facing extinction due to deforestation, especially species of central Africa and the Pacific.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Psychotria", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (692 mm of 966 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.3 °C against a yearly mean of 19.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.
Rain
966 mm in the median year at the habitat, 692 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 131 mm, driest month June at 30 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 708 mm to 1,232 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 974 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 966 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 39 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 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 6.3 °C, the absolute minimum 3.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 12.3 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 4.5 °C to 15.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.7 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 65% 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 -296 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
Mean daily high from 21 °C in Jun, Jul and Aug to 26 °C in Feb; mean nightly low from 12 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low. 966 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 281 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 3.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 25 / 24–28 | 26 / 24–28 | 25 / 23–27 | 24 / 21–26 | 23 / 20–24 | 21 / 17–22 | 21 / 17–22 | 21 / 19–23 | 22 / 21–25 | 22 / 21–26 | 23 / 22–26 | 24 / 23–27 |
| Night °C | 19 / 15–22 | 20 / 15–22 | 19 / 14–22 | 17 / 11–20 | 15 / 8–18 | 13 / 5–16 | 12 / 5–15 | 13 / 6–16 | 14 / 9–17 | 15 / 11–18 | 17 / 13–20 | 18 / 14–21 |
| Rain mm | 131 / 59–184 | 117 / 57–176 | 102 / 68–152 | 65 / 50–90 | 38 / 18–69 | 30 / 12–46 | 33 / 11–47 | 44 / 13–61 | 64 / 24–91 | 99 / 66–121 | 120 / 80–156 | 123 / 68–176 |
| DLI | 38 / 35–42 | 36 / 34–40 | 32 / 30–36 | 27 / 25–31 | 23 / 20–28 | 20 / 18–26 | 21 / 19–27 | 25 / 24–31 | 30 / 29–36 | 33 / 31–38 | 36 / 34–40 | 39 / 36–42 |
| RH % | 64 / 62–67 | 65 / 62–67 | 64 / 62–67 | 63 / 60–64 | 58 / 55–62 | 55 / 53–60 | 55 / 52–59 | 57 / 54–61 | 60 / 55–62 | 62 / 59–65 | 63 / 61–66 | 64 / 62–67 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Ronald Olivier, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Protorhus longifolia Red-beech Photo: CC BY, katuchka
Mimusops obovata Red-milkwood Photo: CC BY, Sunčana Bradley
Allophylus dregeanus Forest Bastard Currant Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony Rebelo
Adenopodia spicata Spiny Splinter-bean Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony Rebelo
Cyrtorchis arcuata Bow-Shaped Raceme Cyrtorchis Photo: CC BY, Andreas De Beer
Englerophytum natalense Silver-leaved Milkplum Photo: CC BY, Sunčana BradleyOther Psychotria 21 in the reference
Psychotria asiatica Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Zheng-An Wang
Psychotria calva Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Sunday Berlioz KAKPO
Psychotria carthagenensis Amyruca Photo: CC BY, Rocío Esmeralda Pose
Psychotria daphnoides Smooth Psychotria Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg Tasney Psychotria kirkii Rubiaceae 
Psychotria ligustrifolia Smooth wild coffee Photo: CC BY, Tom Field
Psychotria loniceroides Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Andrew Thornhill Psychotria maingayi Rubiaceae 
Psychotria micrantha Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Andres Hernandez
Psychotria nervosa Bastard Cankerberry Photo: CC0, author not stated Psychotria nigropunctata Rubiaceae all 22 ›Names & registers
Also known as Grumilea capensis; Grumilea globulosobaccata; Logania capense; Logania capensis; Psychotria capensis var. capensis and 1 more. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 79 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (64 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 15 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -32.50_28.125, lapse-corrected -296 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 31 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.