Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Bistorta amplexicaulis; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-09-08

Bistorta amplexicaulis (D.Don) Greene

Red bistort

Polygonaceae · Afghanistan, China South-Central +6

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Bistorta amplexicaulis, photograph (c) Anwen Evans, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bistorta amplexicaulis, photograph (c) Anwen Evans, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bistorta amplexicaulis, photograph (c) Gazza, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bistorta amplexicaulis, photograph (c) Martin Littlecott, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bistorta amplexicaulis, photograph (c) Subir B. Shakya, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bistorta amplexicaulis, photograph (c) Subir B. Shakya, some rights reserved (CC BY) 59 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
-10.0°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
17°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,472mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
22–45DLI
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 March and June to September, 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

Bistorta amplexicaulis (synonym Persicaria amplexicaulis), the red bistort or mountain fleece, is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family Polygonaceae, native to China, the Himalayas, and Pakistan. It is a damp-loving herbaceous perennial growing to 1.2 m (4 ft) tall and wide, with heart-shaped pointed leaves, downy beneath, and narrow spikes of rose-red or white flowers in summer.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Bistorta amplexicaulis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,714 mm of 2,361 mm) falls in March and June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 10.4 °C against a yearly mean of 5.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March and September.

Rain

2,361 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,714 mm of it March and June to September. Wettest month July at 540 mm, driest month November at 29 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,475 mm to 3,665 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,472 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,361 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: 22 to 45 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -10.0 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -18.0 °C to -2.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 16.5 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is -10.0 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 51 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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 Bistorta amplexicaulis through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 17 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -10.0 °C; 2,361 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost°C · day and nightcold quarter02004006008001000mm rainDLI 22–45RH 51–72%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 29 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C1 / -6–92 / -5–116 / -2–159 / 2–1914 / 6–2216 / 10–2517 / 12–2416 / 12–2415 / 9–2311 / 4–208 / -1–154 / -4–12
Night °C-10 / -18–-2-9 / -17–-2-6 / -14–2-2 / -10–61 / -4–107 / 1–149 / 5–189 / 4–176 / 1–140 / -6–7-5 / -12–3-8 / -16–0
Rain mm114 / 26–168124 / 32–193143 / 65–217100 / 75–168138 / 88–231197 / 107–549540 / 255–979534 / 239–944300 / 179–54093 / 56–11329 / 16–4449 / 17–82
DLI24 / 21–2829 / 25–3437 / 33–4245 / 39–4845 / 40–4941 / 33–4530 / 23–3628 / 24–3331 / 26–3531 / 27–3526 / 22–3022 / 19–26
RH %52 / 50–5754 / 52–5954 / 52–6055 / 51–6158 / 52–6563 / 56–7172 / 65–7572 / 66–7565 / 63–7156 / 52–6252 / 49–5951 / 48–56

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1125 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum -22.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -10.7 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 29 grid cells holding the 40 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 1229:5296 (28.525, 84.825). 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 29 distinct grid cells holding 40 of the 40 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1229:5296 (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 28.50_85.000, lapse-corrected -1125 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2972 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.
NativeAfghanistan, China South-Central, China North-Central, China Southeast, East Himalaya, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya · introduced: Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Germany · 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 marker28.18, 85.447 · in the densest population, 77 records (52% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 149 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 40 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 75 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 215 km away. 1069 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 109 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 4° block of the 149 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Bistorta amplexicaulis, photograph 1did not loadBistorta amplexicaulis, photograph 2did not loadBistorta amplexicaulis, photograph 3did not loadBistorta amplexicaulis, photograph 4did not loadBistorta amplexicaulis, photograph 5did not loadBistorta amplexicaulis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Anwen Evans, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Gazza, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Martin Littlecott, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Subir B. Shakya, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Morina longifolia Morina longifolia Caprifoliaceae Photo: CC BY, Paulmathi VinodRhodiola sinuata Rhodiola sinuata Crassulaceae Photo: CC BY, PRIYA RAUTELARhododendron hodgsonii Rhododendron hodgsonii Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, Gary Yong GeeGeranium wallichianum Geranium wallichianum Buxton's Blue Photo: CC0, author not statedRhododendron campanulatum Rhododendron campanulatum Bell-flowered Rhododendron Photo: CC BY, Andrew LieAndrosace lanuginosa Androsace lanuginosa Primulaceae Photo: CC BY, David Short

Other Bistorta 11 in the reference

Bistorta affinis Bistorta affinis Himalayan fleeceflower Photo: CC BY, ScottBistorta bistortoides Bistorta bistortoides Western bistort Photo: CC BY, Daughter DadBistorta carnea Bistorta carnea Polygonaceae Photo: CC BY, Илья Руденко Bistorta emodi Polygonaceae Bistorta griffithii Bistorta griffithii Polygonaceae Photo: CC BY, Morten RossBistorta macrophylla Bistorta macrophylla Polygonaceae Photo: CC BY, Linda Lötjönen Bistorta milletii Polygonaceae Bistorta officinalis Bistorta officinalis European bistort Photo: CC BY, Hilary Rose DawsonBistorta tenuicaulis Bistorta tenuicaulis Early-blooming bistort Photo: CC BY-SA, Qwert1234Bistorta vacciniifolia Bistorta vacciniifolia Polygonaceae Photo: CC BY, Jiro IguchiBistorta vivipara Bistorta vivipara Alpine bistort Photo: CC BY, 王天明

Names & registers

Also known as Bistorta amplexcicaulis; Bistorta amplexicaulis subsp. sinensis; Bistorta amplexicaulis var. alba; Bistorta amplexicaulis var. sinense; Bistorta amplexicaulis var. speciosa and 14 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Polygonaceae
Described by
(D.Don) Greene
Native to
Afghanistan, China South-Central, China North-Central +5
Wild records
149 in range · 75 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; 97 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (41 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 10 at a herbarium, 46 at a zoo; 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 28.50_85.000, lapse-corrected -1125 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1125 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
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 2026-10-21
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 68 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…