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Agastache rupestris; photograph Charlie McDonald, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Public domainCharlie McDonald, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Agastache rupestris (Greene) Standl.

Threadleaf giant hyssop

Lamiaceae · Arizona, New Mexico

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Agastache rupestris, photograph (c) brettaugust, some rights reserved (CC BY)Agastache rupestris, photograph (c) brettaugust, some rights reserved (CC BY)Agastache rupestris, photograph Atilin, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsAgastache rupestris, photograph Charlie McDonald, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsAgastache rupestris, photograph J.smith, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 6 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-7.7°C
Record low -23.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jun and Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
519mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–52DLI
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 summers: the rain comes December to January and July to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Agastache rupestris, known as the threadleaf giant hyssop, Mexican Hyssop, or licorice mint, is a wildflower of the mint family (Lamiaceae) native to the mountains of Arizona, New Mexico, and Chihuahua, Mexico. Popular in xeriscaping because of its heat tolerance and ability to thrive in dry, nutrient-poor soil, it is often planted in containers or as a border flower and used to attract hummingbirds. Displaying gray-green stems and leaves while dormant, its orange flowers with purple buds bloom from mid-summer until fall; if crushed the petals exude a pleasant scent.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Agastache rupestris", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Agastache

Agastache is a genus of aromatic flowering herbaceous perennial plants in the family Lamiaceae. It contains 22 species, mainly native to North America, one species native to eastern Asia. The common names of the species are a variety of fairly ambiguous and confusing "hyssops" and "mints"; as a whole the genus is known as giant hyssops or hummingbird mints.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Agastache", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (341 mm of 474 mm) falls in December to January and July to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 12.8 °C against a yearly mean of 12.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to April and June to July.

Rain

474 mm in the median year at the habitat, 341 mm of it December to January and July to October. Wettest month August at 91 mm, driest month May at 14 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 431 mm to 607 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 519 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 474 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 52 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 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -7.7 °C, the absolute minimum -23.4 °C, 4,136 frost nights in 44 years, 94.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -2.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -5.4 °C to 0.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.2 °C in June (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -7.7 °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: 40 to 52% 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 -258 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.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Agastache rupestris through the yearWarmest months June and July, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -2.8 °C; 474 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, northern hemisphere.-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost36.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-23.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 20–52RH 40–52%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 14 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 °C9 / 6–1411 / 8–1514 / 12–1819 / 17–2324 / 22–2828 / 26–3228 / 26–3327 / 25–3124 / 22–2920 / 18–2414 / 11–189 / 6–14
Night °C-3 / -5–1-2 / -4–21 / -2–44 / 2–79 / 7–1213 / 12–1615 / 13–2014 / 13–1911 / 10–167 / 5–102 / -1–5-3 / -5–1
Rain mm35 / 24–7132 / 22–6329 / 20–6215 / 13–2314 / 9–1918 / 8–2383 / 58–11391 / 78–12254 / 49–6137 / 29–4825 / 21–4641 / 32–64
DLI23 / 20–2429 / 26–3039 / 36–4047 / 46–4851 / 51–5352 / 50–5445 / 43–4741 / 39–4238 / 37–3931 / 30–3325 / 22–2620 / 18–22
RH %52 / 45–5351 / 44–5248 / 41–4944 / 37–4542 / 34–4440 / 34–4348 / 44–5252 / 47–5648 / 44–5248 / 42–5049 / 42–5051 / 45–52
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 14 grid cells holding the 18 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 1135:1435 (33.225, -108.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -23.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -7.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.6 °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 14 distinct grid cells holding 18 of the 18 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1135:1435 (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 33.00_-108.125, lapse-corrected -258 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1845 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.
NativeArizona, New Mexico · 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 marker31.783, -111.583 · in the densest population, 34 records (97% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 35 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 18 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 15 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 270 km away. 17 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 35 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Agastache rupestris, photograph 1did not loadAgastache rupestris, photograph 2did not loadAgastache rupestris, photograph 3did not loadAgastache rupestris, photograph 4did not loadAgastache rupestris, photograph 5did not load

Photographs: (c) brettaugust, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); Atilin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Charlie McDonald, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; J.smith, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Hedeoma hyssopifolia Hedeoma hyssopifolia Aromatic false pennyroyal Photo: CC BY, tzeducationOenothera podocarpa Oenothera podocarpa Pinyon Evening Primrose Photo: CC BY, Jo RobertsScrophularia macrantha Scrophularia macrantha New Mexico figwort Photo: CC BY, Andrew TreeAquilegia chrysantha Aquilegia chrysantha Golden columbine Photo: CC BY-SA, Brian FinzelAlnus oblongifolia Alnus oblongifolia Arizona alder Photo: CC0, author not stated Hemionitis fendleri Pteridaceae

Other Agastache 11 in the reference

Agastache aurantiaca Agastache aurantiaca Lamiaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedAgastache cana Agastache cana Mosquito plant Photo: CC BY, Kevin FloydAgastache foeniculum Agastache foeniculum Blue giant-hyssop Photo: CC BY, Liren VargheseAgastache mexicana Agastache mexicana Giant Mexican Hyssop Photo: CC BY, nebrooksAgastache nepetoides Agastache nepetoides Yellow giant-hyssop Photo: CC BY, Alan PratherAgastache pallidiflora Agastache pallidiflora Bill Williams Mountain giant hyssop Photo: CC BY-SA, jrrigbyAgastache palmeri Agastache palmeri Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, M. Socorro González ElizondoAgastache pringlei Agastache pringlei Pringle's giant hyssop Photo: CC0, author not statedAgastache rugosa Agastache rugosa Korean-mint Photo: CC BY, Sandy WolkenbergAgastache scrophulariifolia Agastache scrophulariifolia Purple giant-hyssop Photo: CC BY, aarongunnarAgastache urticifolia Agastache urticifolia Nettle-leaved giant-hyssop Photo: CC BY, Jared Tholen

Names & registers

Also known as Agastache lanceolata; Brittonastrum lanceolatum; Brittonastrum rupestre; Cedronella cana var. lanceolata; Cedronella rupestris. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
(Greene) Standl.
Native to
Arizona, New Mexico
Wild records
35 in range · 15 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 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
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; 3 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (3 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 33.00_-108.125, lapse-corrected -258 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
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 2026-10-21none 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
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-21
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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