Species
+

Baccharis pilularis DC.

Chaparral Broom, Coyote Bush, Dwarf Coyote Brush, bush baccharis

Climate known 54 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Baccharis pilularis, called coyote brush, chaparral broom, and bush baccharis, is an evergreen shrub in the family Asteraceae native to California, Oregon, Washington, and Baja California. There are reports of isolated populations in New Mexico, most likely introduced.

Text from Wikipedia, “Baccharis pilularis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Baccharis

Baccharis is a genus of perennials and shrubs in the aster family (Asteraceae). They are commonly known as baccharises but sometimes referred to as "brooms", because many members have small thin leaves resembling the true brooms. They are not at all related to these however, but belong to an entirely different lineage of eudicots. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Baccharis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
DC.
Native to
Oregon, California, New Mexico +1
Wild records
1839 in range· 310 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Aug, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
595mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Jan 119 mm (CHELSA)
Light
14–51DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March in the northern hemisphere (December to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 595 mm a year, wettest January at 119 mm, driest July at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 51 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 2.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Baccharis pilularis subsp. typica C.B.Wolf, 1935; Baccharis pilularis var. typica C.B.Wolf.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March in the northern hemisphere (December to March at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (424 mm of 595 mm) falls in December to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 10.7 °C against a yearly mean of 14.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 595 mm a year, wettest January at 119 mm, driest July at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

595 mm a year at the habitat, 424 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 119 mm, driest July at 1 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 327 mm to 1308 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 51 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 51 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 2.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 2.2 °C, the absolute minimum -2.7 °C, 21 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells 3.8 °C to 9.5 °C), warmest day 26.1 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 14 °C in Dec to 26 °C in Aug; mean night from 6 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 595 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 749 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -2.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost31.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-2.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 14–51RH 59–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 749 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C14 / 12–1815 / 12–1817 / 13–1919 / 14–2221 / 15–2523 / 16–2926 / 18–3226 / 18–3225 / 18–3023 / 17–2517 / 14–2114 / 12–18
Night °C6 / 4–107 / 5–108 / 6–119 / 7–1211 / 9–1312 / 11–1514 / 12–1714 / 13–1814 / 12–1812 / 10–159 / 7–127 / 4–10
Rain mm119 / 63–233114 / 72–20187 / 52–17139 / 24–9217 / 6–504 / 2–171 / 0–42 / 1–76 / 4–1531 / 16–7471 / 31–172104 / 49–263
DLI16 / 13–2122 / 19–2631 / 28–3540 / 38–4447 / 46–5051 / 49–5351 / 49–5346 / 43–4838 / 36–4028 / 26–3118 / 16–2314 / 12–19
RH %61 / 55–6561 / 57–6461 / 57–6560 / 54–6560 / 52–6660 / 50–6760 / 50–6860 / 50–6959 / 50–6759 / 52–6559 / 53–6460 / 54–64

Each figure is the median across the 749 grid cells holding the 1806 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1042:1151 (37.875, -122.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -2.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 749 distinct grid cells holding the 1806 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1042:1151 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 38.00_-122.500, lapse-corrected -54 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 33 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeOregon, California, New Mexico, Mexico Northwest· introduced: Spain
Kew's description“temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker37.8, -122.153 · in the densest population, 1120 records (61% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1839 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 310 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 2 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 33 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1839 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Baccharis pilularisBaccharis pilularisBaccharis pilularisBaccharis pilularisBaccharis pilularisBaccharis pilularisBaccharis pilularisBaccharis pilularis

Photographs: (c) Jeffrey Lee (he/him/his), some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); no rights reserved · CC0 (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Baccharis pilularis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Invasion of an annual grassland in Northern California by Baccharis pilularis ssp. consanguinea
Kathy S. Williams, Richard J. Hobbs, Sarah Hamburg (1987) · Oecologia
Interactions between insect herbivores and a plant architectural dimorphism
Jennifer A. Rudgers, Kenneth D. Whitney (2006) · Journal of Ecology
Invasion of Grassland by Baccharis pilularis DC
Joe R. McBride, Harold F. Heady (1968) · Journal of Range Management
Genetic variation within a dominant shrub species determines plant species colonization in a coastal dune ecosystem
Gregory M. Crutsinger, Sharon Y. Strauss, Jennifer A. Rudgers (2010) · Ecology
Remotely Sensed Water Limitation in Vegetation: Insights from an Experiment with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
Kelly Easterday, Chippie Kislik, Todd E. Dawson, Sean Hogan (2019) · Remote Sensing
Species‐specific phenological responses to winter temperature and precipitation in a water‐limited ecosystem
Susan J. Mazer, Katharine L. Gerst, Elizabeth R. Matthews, Angela G. Evenden (2015) · Ecosphere
Can We Extrapolate the California Model of Grassland‐Shrubland Ecotone?
Enrique Martinez, Eduardo R. Fuentes (1993) · Ecological Applications
Guild Analysis in Biological Control
L. E. Ehler (1992) · Environmental Entomology
Colonization of an Island by Microtus californicus, Analysed on the Basis of Runway Transects
William Z. Lidicker, Paul K. Anderson (1962) · Journal of Animal Ecology

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Baccharis 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 29 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.