Albuca abyssinicaJacq.

WFO wfo-0000755077 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 5 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 5 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Albuca abyssinica, photographed by Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan
fig. a Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-11-21 / obs. 172471543
Albuca abyssinica, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. b Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 165402953
Albuca abyssinica, photographed by Jonathan Whitaker
fig. c Jonathan Whitaker, CC0 1.0 / obs. 97078922
Albuca abyssinica, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. d Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 165402975
Albuca abyssinica, photographed by Mahomed Desai
fig. e Mahomed Desai, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 115643045
Albuca abyssinica, photographed by Mahomed Desai
fig. f Mahomed Desai, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 115643041
Albuca abyssinica, photographed by Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan
fig. g Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 182527765
Albuca abyssinica, photographed by Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan
fig. h Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 182527804

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 26 botanical countries

Regions where Albuca abyssinica is native: Angola, Botswana, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, Yemen AngolaBotswanaBurkinaBurundiCameroonCentral African RepublicDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMalawiMozambiqueNamibiaNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabweSaudi ArabiaYemen
Native distribution of Albuca abyssinica, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Botswana BOT
Burkina BKN
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Central African Republic CAF
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Saudi Arabia SAU ASIA-TEMPERATE
Yemen YEM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 71 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 4.8 °C 9.7 °C 14.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.0 °C 28.8 °C 31.9 °C
Annual rainfall 442 mm 749 mm 1,391 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 1 mm 22 mm 76 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 71 research-grade observations of Albuca abyssinica that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 26 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Albuca abyssinica Welw. ex Baker
  • Albuca asclepiadea Chiov.
  • Albuca beguinotii Cufod.
  • Albuca capitata Gilli
  • Albuca elastica Salisb.
  • Albuca elwesii Regel
  • Albuca erlangeriana Engl.
  • Albuca fischeri Engl.
  • Albuca hysterantha Chiov.
  • Albuca nemorosa Chiov.
  • Albuca parviflora Perkins
  • Albuca praecox Engl. & K.Krause
  • Albuca purpurascens Engl.
  • Albuca tayloriana Rendle
  • Asphodelus abyssinicus hort. ex Schult.f.
  • Asphodelus africanus Lam.
  • Ornithogalum abyssinicum (Jacq.) J.C.Manning & Goldblatt
  • Ornithogalum monteiroi Baker
  • Ornithogalum quartinianum (A.Rich.) Lanza
  • Pallastema abyssinica (Jacq.) Salisb.
  • Scilla petitiana A.Rich.
  • Scilla quartiniana A.Rich.
  • Urginea acinacifolia Schinz
  • Urginea beccarii Baker

and 2 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.