Species
+

Streptocarpus ionanthus (H.Wendl.) Christenh.

African Violet, African violet, African-violet, Afriska fijałka

Climate known 23 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

Streptocarpus ionanthus is a species of Streptocarpus in the section Saintpaulia, commonly known as an African violet. It is native to eastern and southwestern Tanzania.

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

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 ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Streptocarpus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Gesneriaceae
Described by
(H.Wendl.) Christenh.
Native to
Kenya, Tanzania
Wild records
126 in range· 107 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Feb, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1321mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Apr 244 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–42DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Streptocarpus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, March to May and October to December at the habitat (not shifted). Habitat rain 1321 mm a year, wettest April at 244 mm, driest February at 48 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 14.7 °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 Saintpaulia amaniensis F.M.Roberts; Saintpaulia pendula var. kizarii B.L.Burtt.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Streptocarpus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, March to May and October to December at the habitat (not shifted).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (960 mm of 1321 mm) falls in March to May and October to December, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.1 °C against a yearly mean of 23.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

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 1321 mm a year, wettest April at 244 mm, driest February at 48 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1321 mm a year at the habitat, 960 mm of it March to May and October to December. Wettest month April at 244 mm, driest February at 48 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 956 mm to 1758 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: 28 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 42 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 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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 14.7 °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 14.7 °C, the absolute minimum 11.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 16.9 °C in July (across the envelope cells 12.7 °C to 21.4 °C), warmest day 30.6 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

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, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 70% 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 25 °C in Jul to 31 °C in Feb; mean night from 17 °C in Jul to 22 °C in Mar. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1321 mm of rain a year, most in Apr. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 68 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 11.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°38.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)11.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 28–42RH 63–70 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 68 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
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C30 / 27–3231 / 27–3330 / 26–3227 / 23–2926 / 22–2826 / 21–2725 / 21–2725 / 21–2727 / 23–2828 / 24–2929 / 25–3029 / 26–31
Night °C21 / 18–2421 / 18–2422 / 18–2421 / 17–2420 / 16–2318 / 14–2217 / 13–2117 / 13–2118 / 14–2219 / 15–2220 / 17–2321 / 18–24
Rain mm64 / 31–13848 / 14–133133 / 60–177244 / 162–349209 / 114–26978 / 30–10659 / 18–7661 / 18–7951 / 17–64131 / 61–166128 / 83–150115 / 85–159
DLI40 / 37–4142 / 38–4338 / 34–4030 / 28–3428 / 26–3130 / 28–3130 / 28–3232 / 30–3535 / 34–3837 / 36–3938 / 36–3938 / 37–39
RH %64 / 62–6863 / 61–6666 / 64–7070 / 65–7568 / 65–7265 / 62–6864 / 60–6864 / 61–6764 / 61–6765 / 62–6866 / 64–6965 / 63–69

Each figure is the median across the 68 grid cells holding the 97 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 1902:4368 (-5.125, 38.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.1 °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 68 distinct grid cells holding the 97 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1902:4368 (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 -5.00_38.125, lapse-corrected -241 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 468 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.
NativeKenya, Tanzania· introduced: Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“lithophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-5.055, 38.689 · in the densest population, 110 records (87% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 126 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 107 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 35 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 29 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 126 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Streptocarpus ionanthusStreptocarpus ionanthusStreptocarpus ionanthusStreptocarpus ionanthusStreptocarpus ionanthusStreptocarpus ionanthusStreptocarpus ionanthusStreptocarpus ionanthus

Photographs: (c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6); (c) Valentin Moser, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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 Streptocarpus ionanthus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The First Glimpse of Streptocarpus ionanthus (Gesneriaceae) Phylogenomics: Analysis of Five Subspecies’ Chloroplast Genomes
Cornelius M. Kyalo, Zhizhong Li, Elijah Mbandi Mkala, Itambo Malombe (2020) · Plants
The resource potential of fruit and ornamental plants of the order Lamiales in the collection of the Botanical Garden
I. L. Domnytska, O. O. Didur, T. O. Naumova, Y. V. Lykholat (2022) · Ecology and Noospherology
Identification and in silico analysis of PHANTASTICA gene in Saintpaulia ionantha H. Wendl (Gesneriaceae)
Mina Kazemian, Elham Kazemi, Maryam Kolahi, Valiollah Ghasemi Omran (2020) · TURKISH JOURNAL OF BOTANY
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Streptocarpus ionanthus subsp. grotei (Engl.) Christenh.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Streptocarpus ionanthus subsp. ionanthus
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Streptocarpus ionanthus subsp. orbicularis (B. L. Burtt) Christenh.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Streptocarpus ionanthus subsp. ionanthus
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Streptocarpus ionanthus subsp. ionanthus
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Streptocarpus ionanthus subsp. pendulus (B. L. Burtt) Christenh.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Streptocarpus ionanthus subsp. grotei (Engl.) Christenh.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Streptocarpus 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 34 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.