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Watsonia marginata; photograph (c) Charleen Brunke, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Charleen Brunke, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-11

Watsonia marginata (L.f.) Ker Gawl.

Fragrant bugle-lily; Wand Watsonia

Iridaceae · Cape Provinces · listed by its family as a bulb, tuber or caudex

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Watsonia marginata, photograph (c) Charleen Brunke, some rights reserved (CC BY)Watsonia marginata, photograph (c) Charleen Brunke, some rights reserved (CC BY)Watsonia marginata, photograph (c) Charleen Brunke, some rights reserved (CC BY)Watsonia marginata, photograph (c) Charleen Brunke, some rights reserved (CC BY)Watsonia marginata, photograph (c) jeanjacquesgodon, some rights reserved (CC BY)Watsonia marginata, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 54 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
2.5°C
Record low 0.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
856mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
16–53DLI
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 winters: the rain comes November to March (May to September at the habitat), read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Watsonia marginata is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae known by the common name fragrant bugle-lily. It is native to the Cape Provinces of South Africa, but it is well known as an ornamental plant grown in gardens for its showy spikes of flowers. Its native range is an area with winter rainfall and dry summers. It is a perennial herb growing from a corm and growing to a maximum height well over one metre when in flower, sometimes reaching two metres. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Watsonia marginata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex, listed under the family Iridaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tuberous geophyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (606 mm of 855 mm) falls in May to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 12.3 °C against a yearly mean of 16.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

855 mm in the median year at the habitat, 606 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 153 mm, driest month February at 20 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 500 mm to 2,311 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 856 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 855 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: 16 to 53 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 56).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 2.5 °C, the absolute minimum 0.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 6.0 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 3.6 °C to 9.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.1 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.5 °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 60% 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 -380 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 family Iridaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tuberous geophyte”. 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 Watsonia marginata through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 6.0 °C; 855 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°50°frost40.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER0.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 16–53RH 54–60%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 61 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 °C28 / 24–3028 / 25–3126 / 24–2923 / 21–2519 / 17–2116 / 14–1716 / 13–1716 / 14–1818 / 16–2021 / 19–2323 / 21–2626 / 23–29
Night °C16 / 13–1716 / 14–1715 / 13–1612 / 10–1410 / 7–127 / 5–106 / 4–97 / 4–98 / 6–1010 / 8–1212 / 10–1414 / 12–16
Rain mm24 / 13–7720 / 12–5732 / 20–8265 / 41–170110 / 62–293143 / 79–361153 / 86–361117 / 62–30583 / 46–22546 / 28–15834 / 21–12228 / 18–99
DLI53 / 51–5647 / 46–5038 / 37–4127 / 26–3020 / 19–2116 / 15–1818 / 17–1923 / 22–2531 / 30–3341 / 40–4449 / 48–5253 / 51–55
RH %54 / 50–5954 / 49–5955 / 49–6056 / 51–6058 / 53–6159 / 54–6059 / 54–6160 / 55–6159 / 55–6157 / 52–5955 / 51–5954 / 51–59
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 61 grid cells holding the 135 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 2472:3984 (-33.625, 19.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.0 °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 61 distinct grid cells holding 135 of the 135 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2472:3984 (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 -33.50_19.375, lapse-corrected -380 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 342 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 · introduced: South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, California · 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-33.845, 18.84 · in the densest population, 176 records (97% of those in range)
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 181 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 135 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 56 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8 km away. 36 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 46 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 of the 181 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Watsonia marginata, photograph 1did not loadWatsonia marginata, photograph 2did not loadWatsonia marginata, photograph 3did not loadWatsonia marginata, photograph 4did not loadWatsonia marginata, photograph 5did not loadWatsonia marginata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Charleen Brunke, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) jeanjacquesgodon, some rights reserved (CC BY); 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.

Salvia chamelaeagnea Salvia chamelaeagnea Rough blue sage Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloOxalis glabra Oxalis glabra Oxalidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloSearsia angustifolia Searsia angustifolia Lance-Leaved Currant Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloOftia africana Oftia africana Common Lazybush Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloPelargonium longifolium Pelargonium longifolium Bearded pelargonium Photo: CC BY-SA, Deon van EedenSparaxis grandiflora Sparaxis grandiflora Plain harlequin-flower Photo: CC BY, Ben Costamagna

Other Watsonia 15 in the reference

Watsonia aletroides Watsonia aletroides Renoster Watsonia Photo: CC BY-SA, Dave UWatsonia angusta Watsonia angusta Narrow Watsonia Photo: CC BY, Shaun SwanepoelWatsonia borbonica Watsonia borbonica Bugle-lily Photo: CC BY, Patrick JacksonWatsonia coccinea Watsonia coccinea Dwarf Watsonia Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloWatsonia densiflora Watsonia densiflora Dense Watsonia Photo: CC BY, Sunčana BradleyWatsonia fourcadei Watsonia fourcadei Forked Watsonia Photo: CC BY, ChristinaWatsonia humilis Watsonia humilis Shy Watsonia Photo: CC BY-SA, Brian du PreezWatsonia knysnana Watsonia knysnana Pink Gardenroute Watsonia Photo: CC0, author not statedWatsonia laccata Watsonia laccata Coastal Watsonia Photo: CC0, author not statedWatsonia lepida Watsonia lepida Lonesome Watsonia Photo: CC BY, Morten Ross Watsonia × longifolia Iridaceae Watsonia meriana Watsonia meriana Bulbil bugle-lily Photo: CC BY, Austen Armstrong all 16 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Antholyza marginata; Gladiolus glumaceus; Gladiolus marginatus; Ixia marginata; Ixia sceptrum and 4 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Iridaceae
Described by
(L.f.) Ker Gawl.
Native to
Cape Provinces
Wild records
181 in range · 56 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; 10 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (10 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 -33.50_19.375, lapse-corrected -380 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
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 13 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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