41 photographs › At a glance
- Jan, shaded
- Feb, shaded
- Mar, shaded
- Apr
- May
- Jun, under 5 mm of rain
- Jul, under 5 mm of rain
- Aug, under 5 mm of rain
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov, shaded
- Dec, shaded
Summary
Brassica cretica is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae, native to the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly to Greece and the Aegean Islands. It was first described by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1785. A 2021 study suggested that it was the origin of cultivated Brassica oleracea, with later admixture from other Brassica species.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Brassica cretica", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (587 mm of 744 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 11.7 °C against a yearly mean of 16.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.
Rain
744 mm in the median year at the habitat, 587 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 160 mm, driest months (2 at 3 mm); 3 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 459 mm to 1,020 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 782 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 744 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: 13 to 49 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 11, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 4.6 °C, the absolute minimum 0.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 8.2 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 2.7 °C to 10.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.1 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 53 to 61% 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 +137 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
Mean daily high from 11 °C in Feb to 26 °C in Jul and Aug; mean nightly low from 8 °C in Feb to 22 °C in Jul and Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low. 744 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 45 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 0.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 12 / 9–14 | 11 / 9–13 | 13 / 11–15 | 15 / 14–18 | 19 / 17–23 | 24 / 21–27 | 26 / 23–29 | 26 / 24–30 | 24 / 22–27 | 20 / 19–22 | 16 / 13–18 | 13 / 10–15 |
| Night °C | 9 / 3–11 | 8 / 3–11 | 10 / 4–12 | 12 / 7–14 | 16 / 11–17 | 19 / 16–21 | 22 / 18–23 | 22 / 18–24 | 20 / 16–22 | 17 / 12–19 | 13 / 8–16 | 10 / 5–13 |
| Rain mm | 119 / 69–189 | 100 / 54–141 | 71 / 48–102 | 42 / 22–60 | 20 / 10–37 | 4 / 1–15 | 3 / 0–11 | 3 / 1–21 | 21 / 6–53 | 64 / 31–104 | 137 / 71–179 | 160 / 80–200 |
| DLI | 15 / 13–19 | 21 / 19–25 | 30 / 27–33 | 39 / 37–41 | 45 / 43–47 | 49 / 48–51 | 49 / 47–50 | 44 / 42–46 | 35 / 32–38 | 25 / 22–29 | 17 / 14–21 | 13 / 11–17 |
| RH % | 60 / 58–65 | 59 / 58–63 | 59 / 57–61 | 57 / 53–61 | 56 / 50–63 | 55 / 47–63 | 53 / 47–63 | 54 / 49–63 | 57 / 52–62 | 59 / 57–61 | 61 / 57–63 | 61 / 59–65 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Daniel Cahen, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0.
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Paeonia clusii Clusius' Peony Photo: CC0, author not stated
Anthemis chia Chios Chamomile Photo: CC BY, Umut Nuri Erdoğan
Euphorbia acanthothamnos Greek spiny spurge Photo: CC BY, Eleftherios Katsillis
Pseudodictamnus acetabulosus False Dittany Photo: CC BY, pavlaki1968
Colchicum zahnii Colchicaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Centaurea spinosa Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Cesar OrmazabalOther Brassica 8 in the reference
Brassica balearica Brassicaceae Photo: CC BY, fmunoz
Brassica fruticulosa Twiggy turnip Photo: CC BY, Em Lamond
Brassica insularis Brassicaceae Photo: CC BY, Drepanostoma
Brassica montana Brassicaceae Photo: CC BY, Noé Fleury Frouart
Brassica napus Rape Photo: CC0, author not stated
Brassica oleracea Cabbage Photo: CC0, author not stated
Brassica rapa Field mustard Photo: CC BY, Yurii Basov
Brassica rupestris Scillian Wild Cabbage Photo: CC BY, Alfonso La Rosa Names & registers
Also known as Brassica oleracea subsp. cretica; Brassica oleracea var. cretica. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-21gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 22 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (16 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 5 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-21climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.50_23.750, lapse-corrected +137 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 54 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.