Heliotropium steudneriVatke

WFO wfo-0001215459 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Heliotropium steudneri, photographed by Noeleen du Toit
fig. a Noeleen du Toit, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-01-03 / obs. 177801340
Heliotropium steudneri, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. b Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 60135317
Heliotropium steudneri, photographed by Elliot Kulakow
fig. c Elliot Kulakow, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 57827339
Heliotropium steudneri, photographed by Wynand Uys
fig. d Wynand Uys, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 109189377
Heliotropium steudneri, photographed by Andrew Deacon
fig. e Andrew Deacon, CC0 1.0 / obs. 15583755
Heliotropium steudneri, photographed by Wynand Uys
fig. f Wynand Uys, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 110675366
Heliotropium steudneri, photographed by i_c_riddell
fig. g i_c_riddell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 13173004
Heliotropium steudneri, photographed by Dave U
fig. h Dave U, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 180078876

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 20 botanical countries

Regions where Heliotropium steudneri is native: Angola, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Djibouti, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Mozambique, Namibia, Northern Provinces, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Oman, Yemen AngolaBotswanaCape ProvincesDjiboutiEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMozambiqueNamibiaNorthern ProvincesSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZimbabweOmanYemen
Native distribution of Heliotropium steudneri, 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
Cape Provinces CPP
Djibouti DJI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Northern Provinces TVL
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zimbabwe ZIM
Oman OMA 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 181 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 5.5 °C 11.8 °C 15.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.6 °C 30.8 °C 33.2 °C
Annual rainfall 369 mm 591 mm 780 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 3 mm 22 mm 74 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 181 research-grade observations of Heliotropium steudneri 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 12 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.

  • Heliotropium abyssinicum Vatke
  • Heliotropium bottae Deflers
  • Heliotropium chiatellinii Chiov.
  • Heliotropium dissimile N.E.Br.
  • Heliotropium eduardi Martelli
  • Heliotropium gorinii Chiov.
  • Heliotropium hirsutissimum Vatke
  • Heliotropium nelsonii C.H.Wright
  • Heliotropium pectinatum Vaupel
  • Heliotropium pectinatum subsp. mkomaziense Verdc.
  • Heliotropium pectinatum subsp. septentrionale Verdc.
  • Heliotropium rogersii Kaplan

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.