Climate: Lithops occur naturally across wide areas of Namibia and South Africa, as well as small bordering areas in Botswana and possibly Angola, from sea level to high mountains. Nearly a thousand individual populations are documented, each covering just a small area of dry grassland, veld, or bare rocky ground. Different Lithops species are preferentially found in particular environments, usually restricted to a particular type of rock. Lithops have not naturalized outside this region.
Rainfall in Lithops habitats ranges from approximately 700mm/year to near zero. Rainfall patterns range from exclusively summer rain to exclusively winter rain, with a few species relying almost entirely on dew formation for moisture. Temperatures are usually hot in summer and cool to cold in winter, but one species is found right at the coast with very moderate temperatures year round.
Lithops often survive many years of drought with nothing more than seasonal fogs. These plants have evolved a strategy that enables them to absorb and store moisture from these scant fogs. As our climate is much more humid than that of Africa, Lithops can absorb much of its required moisture from the air.