Karen Eichholz, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF · observed growing wild

Sparrmannia africana L.fil.

African Lime Tree, African Linden, African hemp, African-hemp

Climate known 24 photographs

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Sparrmannia africana, the African hemp or African linden, is a species of flowering plant in the mallow family Malvaceae, native to open woodland in South Africa and Madagascar. It is one of up to seven species in the genus Sparrmannia. The genus name is after Anders Sparrman.

Text from Wikipedia, “Sparrmannia africana”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Sparrmannia

Sparrmannia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Malvaceae. It includes three species native to eastern, central, and southern Africa and Madagascar.

Text from Wikipedia, “Sparrmannia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family

Malvaceae

Described by

L.fil.

Native to

Cape Provinces

Wild records

286 in range· 119 open

At a glance

Warmest month

24°C

Feb, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)

Rain

775mm/yr

12 wet months · peak Oct 81 mm (CHELSA)

Light

17–47DLI

mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)

In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person

Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February, April to July and September to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 775 mm a year, wettest October at 81 mm, driest February at 52 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 47 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 7.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Sparmannia acerifolia Steud.; Sparrmannia acerifolia Steud.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February, April to July and September to November in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (560 mm of 775 mm) takes 8 months, October to January, March to May and August. Mean temperature moves 7.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: February, April to July and September to November.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 775 mm a year, wettest October at 81 mm, driest February at 52 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

775 mm a year at the habitat, 560 mm of it October to January, March to May and August. Wettest month October at 81 mm, driest February at 52 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 599 mm to 1033 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 47 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 7.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 7.2 °C, the absolute minimum 5.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 8.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 5.2 °C to 12.1 °C), warmest day 23.9 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 7.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 105 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale

Figures by month

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Day °C	24 / 22–26	24 / 23–26	23 / 22–25	21 / 20–23	19 / 18–20	18 / 16–19	17 / 15–18	17 / 16–19	18 / 17–20	19 / 18–21	21 / 20–23	22 / 21–25
Night °C	16 / 14–18	17 / 15–19	16 / 14–18	13 / 11–16	12 / 9–15	9 / 6–13	9 / 5–12	9 / 6–12	10 / 8–13	12 / 10–14	13 / 11–15	15 / 13–17
Rain mm	61 / 41–84	52 / 38–74	70 / 52–95	71 / 51–88	59 / 34–77	53 / 32–76	54 / 37–75	76 / 53–101	56 / 35–80	81 / 56–108	75 / 52–96	67 / 48–88
DLI	47 / 45–49	41 / 40–43	34 / 33–36	26 / 25–27	20 / 19–21	17 / 16–18	18 / 17–19	23 / 22–24	30 / 29–32	37 / 36–40	44 / 43–46	47 / 46–49
RH %	63 / 60–64	64 / 61–65	63 / 61–65	61 / 59–63	57 / 55–60	55 / 53–58	55 / 53–57	58 / 56–60	61 / 59–61	62 / 60–63	62 / 60–63	63 / 60–64

Each figure is the median across the 105 grid cells holding the 282 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2478:4075 (-33.925, 23.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 5.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 105 distinct grid cells holding the 282 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2478:4075 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -34.00_23.750, lapse-corrected +134 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 450 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.

Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.

NativeCape Provinces

Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here

Map marker-33.927, 22.651 · in the densest population, 260 records (91% of those in range)

Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 286 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 119 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 20 km away. 65 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 4 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.

The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 286 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Photographs: Karen Eichholz, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Shaun Swanepoel, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (4); Di Turner, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Sparrmannia africana, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Occurrence Download

GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Occurrence Download

GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Occurrence Download

GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Sparrmannia africana L. fil.