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Arnica angustifolia; photograph Oleif Johnsen, CC BY, via GBIF CC BYOleif Johnsen, CC BY, via GBIF

Arnica angustifolia Vahl

Arctic arnica; Narrow-leaf arnica; Narrow-leaved arnica; Alpine arnica

Asteraceae · Finland, Norway +26

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Arnica angustifolia, photograph Eero Koskinen, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFArnica angustifolia, photograph Eero Koskinen, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFArnica angustifolia, photograph Eero Koskinen, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFArnica angustifolia, photograph Perry Gunnar Larsen, CC BY, via GBIFArnica angustifolia, photograph Piotr Lukasik, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFArnica angustifolia, photograph Syd Cannings, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-37.9°C
Record low -47.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
14°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
615mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
0–37DLI
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 May to November, 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

Arnica angustifolia is an Arctic and alpine species of plants in the sunflower family, known by the common names narrowleaf arnica and Arctic arnica. It is native to colder regions in Europe, Asia, and North America (northern and western Canada, Alaska, northern Rocky Mountains). It is a perennial herb growing up to 16 inches (41 centimetres) tall. Its native habitats include bare, rocky slopes and alpine summits.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Arnica angustifolia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (449 mm of 617 mm) falls in May to November, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 2.3 °C against a yearly mean of -4.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to May.

Rain

617 mm in the median year at the habitat, 449 mm of it May to November. Wettest month July at 92 mm, driest month April at 30 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 342 mm to 1,187 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 615 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 617 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: 0 to 37 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 0, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -37.9 °C, the absolute minimum -47.6 °C, 11,147 frost nights in 44 years, 253.3 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 20.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -23.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -32.9 °C to -14.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 14.4 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -37.9 °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: 61 to 72% 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 -6 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 Arnica angustifolia through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 14 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -23.2 °C; 617 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.-60°-40°-20°0°20°40°frost20.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-47.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 0–37RH 61–72%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 733 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 °C-17 / -28–-9-15 / -26–-8-9 / -21–-3-4 / -13–43 / -4–1210 / 4–1814 / 9–2012 / 8–186 / 1–12-2 / -10–3-10 / -20–-5-15 / -26–-8
Night °C-23 / -33–-14-22 / -32–-14-16 / -27–-11-9 / -19–-5-4 / -8–13 / 0–87 / 3–115 / 3–90 / -3–4-7 / -16–-3-16 / -26–-10-20 / -31–-13
Rain mm37 / 15–11531 / 14–8031 / 13–7630 / 12–6940 / 18–8465 / 27–10892 / 43–14387 / 50–12865 / 39–12057 / 28–12143 / 22–9739 / 19–105
DLI0 / 0–43 / 2–1113 / 10–2127 / 23–3236 / 31–4137 / 31–4331 / 25–3921 / 18–3012 / 10–195 / 3–101 / 0–50 / 0–3
RH %72 / 62–8370 / 61–8267 / 59–7665 / 56–7163 / 54–6761 / 54–6661 / 54–6663 / 56–6865 / 57–7068 / 59–7471 / 62–8072 / 62–82
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 733 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1008 records in those cells; 9 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 504:7152 (64.775, 177.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -47.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -37.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 20.2 °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 733 distinct grid cells holding 1008 of the 1017 in-range records (9 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 504:7152 (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 65.00_177.500, lapse-corrected -6 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 50 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.
NativeFinland, Norway, Sweden, North European Russia, Altay, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, Kamchatka, Magadan, Kazakhstan, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Alaska, Greenland, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Labrador, Newfoundland, Ontario, Québec, Montana · 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 marker69.338, 21.021 · in the densest population, 314 records (19% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “subalpine or subarctic” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1656 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1008 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1017 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1315 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 10 km away. 51 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 639 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 1656 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Arnica angustifolia, photograph 1did not loadArnica angustifolia, photograph 2did not loadArnica angustifolia, photograph 3did not loadArnica angustifolia, photograph 4did not loadArnica angustifolia, photograph 5did not loadArnica angustifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Eero Koskinen, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3); Perry Gunnar Larsen, CC BY, via GBIF; Piotr Lukasik, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Syd Cannings, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF.

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

Myosotis asiatica Myosotis asiatica Asian forget-me-not Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerSalix arctica Salix arctica Arctic willow Photo: CC0, author not statedArtemisia tilesii Artemisia tilesii Tilesius wormwood Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerDiapensia obovata Diapensia obovata Alaska diapensia Photo: CC0, author not statedAnemonastrum richardsonii Anemonastrum richardsonii Richardson's anemone Photo: CC BY, lauralaska66Salix rotundifolia Salix rotundifolia Round-leaved willow Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Arnica 13 in the reference

Arnica acaulis Arnica acaulis Common leopardbane Photo: CC0, Becky DillArnica chamissonis Arnica chamissonis Chamisso arnica Photo: CC BY, Celina WaldronArnica cordifolia Arnica cordifolia Heart-leaf arnica Photo: CC BY-SA, Gordon McAdamsArnica fulgens Arnica fulgens Foothill arnica Photo: CC0, Parker HopkinsArnica griscomii Arnica griscomii Snow arnica Photo: CC BY, Syd CanningsArnica lanceolata Arnica lanceolata Lance-leaved arnica Photo: CC0, davidbroadlandArnica latifolia Arnica latifolia Broad-leaved arnica Photo: CC BY, Brooke SmithArnica longifolia Arnica longifolia Spear-leaf arnica Photo: CC BY, Tim MessickArnica mollis Arnica mollis Hairy arnica Photo: CC0, Shane JohnsonArnica montana Arnica montana Mountain arnica Photo: CC BY, Gunnar EnganArnica nevadensis Arnica nevadensis Nevada arnica Photo: CC BY, Ed AlversonArnica rydbergii Arnica rydbergii Subalpine arnica Photo: CC0, Craig Martin all 14 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Arnica angustifolia var. angustifolia. (GBIF Backbone)

Registers not checked Wikidata did not answer when this page was built, so the links it gives (POWO, IPNI, World Flora Online, Wikipedia) were not checked; any shown here are kept from an earlier build. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
GBIFWikipedia

The record

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
Vahl
Native to
Finland, Norway, Sweden +25
Wild records
1656 in range · 1315 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; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 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 65.00_177.500, lapse-corrected -6 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata failedasked 2026-10-21query.wikidata.org timeout (batched: Wikidata's query service, 200 GBIF keys)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media 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 89 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…