Welwitschia mirabilis Hook.f.
!kharos, Angolan Welwitschia, Namibian Welwitschia, Prawa welwićija
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
Welwitschia is a monotypic genus of gnetophytes containing only the species Welwitschia mirabilis. It is named after the Austrian botanist Friedrich Welwitsch, who documented the plant in the 1850s. In common use, it is sometimes referred to as the tree tumbo or onyanga. It is native to Angola and Namibia, where it grows in the extreme conditions of the Namib desert, tolerating high heat and low precipitation. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Welwitschia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Welwitschia
Welwitschia is a monotypic genus of gnetophytes containing only the species Welwitschia mirabilis. It is named after the Austrian botanist Friedrich Welwitsch, who documented the plant in the 1850s. In common use, it is sometimes referred to as the tree tumbo or onyanga. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Welwitschia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Tumboa bainesii Hook.f.; Welwitschia bainesii (Hook.f.) Carrière; Welwitschia mirabilis subsp. mirabilis; Welwitschia mirabilis subsp. namibiana Leuenb.; Welwitschia namibiana (Leuenb.) Christenh. & Byng.
Cultivation
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Welwitschia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.
Its year Rain rule: no rainy season to read (81 mm a year); the temperature rule's cooler six months are November to April in the northern hemisphere.
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
Rain at the habitat is 81 mm a year (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Under 120 mm the rain rule reads no rainy season, and the growing-season rule infers nothing from it. The temperature rule reads the cooler six months as May to October. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to April.
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 81 mm a year, wettest March at 26 mm, driest July at 0 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
81 mm a year at the habitat. Wettest month March at 26 mm, driest July at 0 mm; 7 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 29 mm to 200 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: 30 to 53 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 53 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 29, the highest 90th-percentile month 55).
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 4.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 4.0 °C, the absolute minimum 0.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.4 °C in August (across the envelope cells 10.5 °C to 14.2 °C), warmest day 30.9 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.0 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 44 to 56% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 29 / 26–32 | 30 / 27–33 | 31 / 28–33 | 31 / 28–34 | 30 / 27–32 | 27 / 25–29 | 27 / 24–29 | 27 / 23–30 | 28 / 23–32 | 28 / 24–33 | 29 / 25–33 | 29 / 26–33 |
| Night °C | 16 / 15–19 | 17 / 16–20 | 18 / 16–21 | 18 / 16–21 | 16 / 14–18 | 13 / 12–16 | 13 / 12–15 | 12 / 11–14 | 13 / 11–15 | 14 / 11–17 | 15 / 12–18 | 16 / 14–19 |
| Rain mm | 10 / 5–34 | 20 / 6–55 | 26 / 7–58 | 11 / 4–24 | 1 / 0–1 | 1 / 0–1 | 0 / 0–1 | 0 | 1 / 0–1 | 1 / 1–4 | 4 / 2–11 | 6 / 2–14 |
| DLI | 51 / 47–53 | 47 / 45–49 | 43 / 42–44 | 38 / 37–40 | 33 / 32–36 | 30 / 29–32 | 32 / 30–33 | 36 / 35–38 | 43 / 41–44 | 49 / 47–50 | 52 / 50–53 | 53 / 49–55 |
| RH % | 56 / 51–62 | 56 / 52–62 | 54 / 50–61 | 49 / 46–59 | 45 / 42–56 | 44 / 41–58 | 44 / 41–61 | 48 / 41–65 | 50 / 42–64 | 51 / 43–62 | 51 / 44–61 | 54 / 46–61 |
Each figure is the median across the 218 grid cells holding the 541 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 2205:3879 (-20.275, 13.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.1 °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 218 distinct grid cells holding the 541 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2205:3879 (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 -20.50_13.750, lapse-corrected +515 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 987 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (7); (c) keesgroenendijk, some rights reserved (CC BY).
Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons 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 Welwitschia mirabilis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Commiphora saxicola Rock Commiphora
Adenia pechuelii Elephant's foot
Commiphora oblanceolata False Karee Corkwood
Monsonia mossamedensis Geraniaceae Ammocharis deserticola Amaryllidaceae
Commiphora wildii Oak-Leaved CommiphoraHistory & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 31 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.