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Streptocarpus glandulosissimus; photograph (c) Jakob Tougaard, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Jakob Tougaard, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-03-24

Streptocarpus glandulosissimus Engl.

Gesneriaceae · Burundi, Rwanda +4 · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

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Streptocarpus glandulosissimus, photograph (c) Jakob Tougaard, some rights reserved (CC BY)Streptocarpus glandulosissimus, photograph (c) Liliana Ramírez-Freire, some rights reserved (CC BY)Streptocarpus glandulosissimus, photograph (c) Liliana Ramírez-Freire, some rights reserved (CC BY)Streptocarpus glandulosissimus, photograph (c) Liliana Ramírez-Freire, some rights reserved (CC BY)Streptocarpus glandulosissimus, photograph (c) Liliana Ramírez-Freire, some rights reserved (CC BY)Streptocarpus glandulosissimus, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 7 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
7.0°C
Record low 4.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
22°C
Jan, Feb and Mar at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,751mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–39DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  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 November to January and March to May (the habitat's months, not shifted), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Streptocarpus glandulosissimus, called the Cape primrose (along with other members of its subgenus Streptocarpus), is a species of flowering plant in the genus Streptocarpus, native to the central African lakes region; eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Kenya. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Streptocarpus glandulosissimus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Streptocarpus

Streptocarpus is an Afrotropical genus of flowering plants in the family Gesneriaceae. The genus is native to Afromontane biotopes from central, eastern and southern Africa, including Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. The flowers are five-petalled, salverform tubes, almost orchid-like in appearance, and hover or arch over the plant, while the pointed, elongate fruit is of a helical form similar to that of the "tusk" of a narwhal. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the genus Streptocarpus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “scrambling subshrub or shrub”, “wet tropical”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,256 mm of 1,680 mm) falls in November to January and March to May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 17.1 °C against a yearly mean of 16.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,680 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,256 mm of it November to January and March to May. Wettest month April at 339 mm, driest month September at 40 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,130 mm to 3,170 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,751 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,680 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: 29 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 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 7.0 °C, the absolute minimum 4.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 9.7 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 4.5 °C to 13.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.2 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 7.0 °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: 62 to 70% 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 +940 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.

Group. Listed under the genus Streptocarpus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “scrambling subshrub or shrub”, “wet tropical”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Streptocarpus glandulosissimus through the yearWarmest months January, February and March, mean daily high 22 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 9.7 °C; 1,680 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°30.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER4.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 29–39RH 62–70%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 35 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 °C22 / 16–2722 / 17–2722 / 16–2620 / 15–2420 / 14–2319 / 13–2318 / 13–2319 / 13–2320 / 15–2421 / 15–2521 / 15–2621 / 15–26
Night °C14 / 7–1814 / 8–1814 / 8–1814 / 8–1812 / 7–1611 / 6–1410 / 5–1410 / 5–1411 / 5–1512 / 6–1613 / 7–1714 / 7–18
Rain mm131 / 74–228129 / 61–225202 / 142–347339 / 223–450224 / 108–32558 / 28–18542 / 14–14541 / 16–25940 / 14–324114 / 52–379186 / 97–389174 / 115–251
DLI38 / 34–4039 / 35–4336 / 32–4031 / 28–3430 / 27–3229 / 27–3329 / 27–3331 / 28–3436 / 31–3737 / 29–3936 / 30–3936 / 33–38
RH %64 / 61–6862 / 59–6866 / 61–7170 / 64–7570 / 63–7466 / 58–7066 / 57–6965 / 58–6963 / 57–6564 / 59–6667 / 61–7166 / 62–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 35 grid cells holding the 50 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 1895:4366 (-4.775, 38.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.4 °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 35 distinct grid cells holding 50 of the 50 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1895:4366 (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 -5.00_38.125, lapse-corrected +940 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1649 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.
NativeBurundi, Rwanda, Zaïre, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda · 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-4.757, 38.288 · in the densest population, 68 records (58% of those in range)
Kew's description“scrambling subshrub or shrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 118 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 50 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 78 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 68 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 118 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Streptocarpus glandulosissimus, photograph 1did not loadStreptocarpus glandulosissimus, photograph 2did not loadStreptocarpus glandulosissimus, photograph 3did not loadStreptocarpus glandulosissimus, photograph 4did not loadStreptocarpus glandulosissimus, photograph 5did not loadStreptocarpus glandulosissimus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Jakob Tougaard, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Liliana Ramírez-Freire, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0.

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

Solanum betaceum Solanum betaceum Tree tomato Photo: CC BY, Abril BastonsBegonia meyeri-johannis Begonia meyeri-johannis Begoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Jose Luis Leon de la LuzAerangis thomsonii Aerangis thomsonii Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedEnsete ventricosum Ensete ventricosum Abyssinian banana Photo: CC BY, Kelvin PerrieImpatiens pseudoviola Impatiens pseudoviola Balsaminaceae Photo: CC BY, Ram Dayal VaishnavCyclanthera pedata Cyclanthera pedata Achocha Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Streptocarpus 80 in the reference

Streptocarpus aylae Gesneriaceae Streptocarpus baudertii Gesneriaceae Streptocarpus beampingaratrensis Gesneriaceae Streptocarpus betsiliensis Gesneriaceae Streptocarpus bindseili Gesneriaceae Streptocarpus brevipilosus Streptocarpus brevipilosus Gesneriaceae Photo: CC0, DaderotStreptocarpus brevistamineus Streptocarpus brevistamineus Gesneriaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated Streptocarpus buchananii Gesneriaceae Streptocarpus bullatus Gesneriaceae Streptocarpus capuronii Gesneriaceae Streptocarpus caulescens Streptocarpus caulescens Nodding Violet Photo: CC BY, TANAKA Juuyoh (????)Streptocarpus confusus Streptocarpus confusus Gesneriaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated all 81 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Streptocarpus bequaertii; Streptocarpus mildbraedii; Streptocarpus ruwenzoriensis; Streptocarpus smithii; Streptocarpus tchenzemae and 1 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Gesneriaceae
Described by
Engl.
Native to
Burundi, Rwanda, Zaïre +3
Wild records
118 in range · 78 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -5.00_38.125, lapse-corrected +940 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 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 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 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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