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Thunbergia atriplicifolia; photograph (c) Wynand Uys, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Wynand Uys, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-18

Thunbergia atriplicifolia E.Mey. ex Nees

Natal Primrose; Natal Primrose Clockvine

Acanthaceae · Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal +2

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Thunbergia atriplicifolia E.Mey. ex Nees: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, E.Mey.

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Thunbergia atriplicifolia, photograph (c) Sunčana Bradley, some rights reserved (CC BY)Thunbergia atriplicifolia, photograph (c) Sunčana Bradley, some rights reserved (CC BY)Thunbergia atriplicifolia, photograph (c) Sunčana Bradley, some rights reserved (CC BY)Thunbergia atriplicifolia, photograph (c) Sunčana Bradley, some rights reserved (CC BY)Thunbergia atriplicifolia, photograph (c) Sunčana Bradley, some rights reserved (CC BY)Thunbergia atriplicifolia, photograph (c) Sunčana Bradley, some rights reserved (CC BY) 61 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
4.4°C
Record low 0.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
911mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
22–38DLI
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 summers: the rain comes April to September (October to March at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Thunbergia atriplicifolia, the Natal primrose, is a species of flowering plant in the family Acanthaceae, native to South Africa and Eswatini. It is a favored browse of the steenbok (Raphicerus campestris).

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Thunbergia atriplicifolia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Thunbergia

Thunbergia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Acanthaceae. It includes 150 species native to tropical and subtropical regions of sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, southern Asia, New Guinea, and Australia. Thunbergia species are vigorous annual or perennial vines and shrubs growing to 2–8 m tall. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (706 mm of 881 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.6 °C against a yearly mean of 18.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Rain

881 mm in the median year at the habitat, 706 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 138 mm, driest month July at 16 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 712 mm to 1,157 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 911 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 881 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: 22 to 38 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 19, 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 4.4 °C, the absolute minimum 0.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 6.4 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 3.0 °C to 13.9 °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: 4.4 °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: 54 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 +207 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 Thunbergia atriplicifolia through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 6.4 °C; 881 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.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost37.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER0.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 22–38RH 54–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 324 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 °C26 / 24–2826 / 24–2825 / 23–2723 / 21–2522 / 19–2320 / 17–2220 / 17–2121 / 19–2323 / 21–2523 / 21–2624 / 22–2725 / 23–27
Night °C17 / 14–2117 / 14–2116 / 13–2113 / 10–1910 / 7–177 / 3–146 / 3–148 / 5–1511 / 8–1613 / 10–1715 / 12–1816 / 13–20
Rain mm138 / 114–176120 / 97–16097 / 81–13551 / 35–7421 / 13–4419 / 8–3916 / 3–4026 / 8–5042 / 18–8295 / 67–119123 / 100–154133 / 99–163
DLI38 / 35–4236 / 34–4032 / 30–3628 / 26–3125 / 22–2822 / 19–2523 / 21–2727 / 25–3231 / 29–3833 / 30–4136 / 33–4138 / 35–43
RH %64 / 58–6865 / 58–6864 / 57–6761 / 55–6457 / 52–5954 / 51–5754 / 49–5755 / 49–5858 / 49–6261 / 53–6563 / 56–6664 / 58–67
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 324 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (679 records in those cells; 2 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 2307:4220 (-25.375, 31.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.7 °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 324 distinct grid cells holding 679 of the 681 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2307:4220 (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 -25.50_31.250, lapse-corrected +207 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 854 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, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces · 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-29.5, 30.867 · in the densest population, 648 records (70% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 929 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 679 of them in the land cells it reads, of 681 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 366 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 169 km away. 16 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 248 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 8414602 (Thunbergia atriplicifolia E.Mey. ex Nees): Kew's file holds it as Thunbergia atriplicifolia E.Mey. ex Nees (accepted); 462 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 929 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Thunbergia atriplicifolia, photograph 1did not loadThunbergia atriplicifolia, photograph 2did not loadThunbergia atriplicifolia, photograph 3did not loadThunbergia atriplicifolia, photograph 4did not loadThunbergia atriplicifolia, photograph 5did not loadThunbergia atriplicifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Sunčana Bradley, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

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

Combretum kraussii Combretum kraussii Forest Bushwillow Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloScadoxus puniceus Scadoxus puniceus Royal-paintbrush Photo: CC0, author not statedAloe cooperi Aloe cooperi Cooper's aloe Photo: CC BY, Bruno - Yolande ZanetteEulophia streptopetala Eulophia streptopetala Twisted Harlequin Photo: CC0, author not statedCyrtanthus contractus Cyrtanthus contractus Common Firelily Photo: CC BY, katuchkaPlectranthus purpuratus Plectranthus purpuratus Cliff Spurflower Photo: CC BY, Sunčana Bradley

Other Thunbergia 14 in the reference

Thunbergia affinis Thunbergia affinis Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY, M108tThunbergia alata Thunbergia alata Blackeyed Susan vine Photo: CC BY, Macelo CostaThunbergia battiscombei Thunbergia battiscombei Blue Glory Vine Photo: CC BY-SA, Hedwig StorchThunbergia coccinea Thunbergia coccinea Scarlet clock vine Photo: CC BY, Egor DyukarevThunbergia erecta Thunbergia erecta Bush clockvine Photo: CC BY, EthanThunbergia fragrans Thunbergia fragrans Whitelady Photo: CC BY, Richard LittauerThunbergia grandiflora Thunbergia grandiflora Bengal trumpet Photo: CC BY-SA, Juan Cruzado CortésThunbergia gregorii Thunbergia gregorii Golden Clockvine Photo: CC0, author not stated Thunbergia kirkii Acanthaceae Thunbergia laurifolia Thunbergia laurifolia Laurel clockvine Photo: CC BY, Zakqary RoyThunbergia mysorensis Thunbergia mysorensis Mysore trumpetvine Photo: CC BY, Nadezhda BortnikovaThunbergia natalensis Thunbergia natalensis Blue-bell Photo: CC0, author not stated all 15 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Thunbergia aspera; Thunbergia bachmannii; Thunbergia baurii; Thunbergia cordibracteolata; Thunbergia flavohirta and 3 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Acanthaceae
Described by
E.Mey. ex Nees
Native to
Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland +1
Wild records
929 in range · 366 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 2026-10-22GBIF's key 5574370 is Thunbergia atriplicifolia E.Mey.; the page links Kew's Thunbergia atriplicifolia E.Mey. ex Nees, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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; 462 records of GBIF's key 8414602, Thunbergia atriplicifolia E.Mey. ex Nees (Kew's file holds it as Thunbergia atriplicifolia E.Mey. ex Nees (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search API; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 -25.50_31.250, lapse-corrected +207 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 2026-10-22read from the page's key and its other keys: 4 from GBIF's key 8414602
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 16 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…