Caragana arborescens Lam.
Siberian Pea-tree, Siberian pea shrub, Siberian pea tree, Siberian peashrub
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
Caragana arborescens, the Siberian peashrub, Siberian pea-tree, or caragana, is a species of legume native to Siberia and parts of China and neighboring Mongolia and Kazakhstan. It was taken to the United States by Eurasian immigrants, who used it as a food source while travelling west. In some areas of the United States it is considered an invasive species. Introduced on the Canadian prairies in the 1880s, the hardy caragana provided shelter-belts, wildlife habitat, nitrogen fixation, and windbreaks to prevent soil erosion and snow drifting.
Text from Wikipedia, “Caragana arborescens”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Caragana
Caragana is a genus of about 80–100 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, native to Asia and eastern Europe.
Text from Wikipedia, “Caragana”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Aspalathus arborescens Amman; Aspalathus caragana (L.) Kuntze; Aspalathus redowskii (DC.) Kuntze; Asphalathus caragana (L.) Kuntze; Caragana altagana (Pall.) Poir. and 34 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to November in the northern hemisphere (May to November at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (427 mm of 600 mm) falls in May to November, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 10.9 °C against a yearly mean of 3.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to May.
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 600 mm a year, wettest July at 78 mm, driest February at 29 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
600 mm a year at the habitat, 427 mm of it May to November. Wettest month July at 78 mm, driest February at 29 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 411 mm to 737 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: 3 to 37 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 3 to 37 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 2, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).
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 -31.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -31.6 °C, the absolute minimum -43.9 °C, about 188 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -15.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells -21.9 °C to -10.1 °C), warmest day 23.1 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -31.6 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 72% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | -9 / -14–-5 | -7 / -11–-5 | -1 / -4–1 | 9 / 5–11 | 17 / 14–18 | 21 / 19–23 | 23 / 21–25 | 21 / 19–23 | 15 / 13–16 | 7 / 5–9 | -2 / -5–0 | -7 / -12–-4 |
| Night °C | -15 / -22–-10 | -14 / -21–-11 | -8 / -13–-6 | -1 / -5–1 | 6 / 3–8 | 12 / 9–13 | 15 / 12–15 | 13 / 10–14 | 7 / 4–8 | 2 / -3–3 | -7 / -13–-4 | -13 / -20–-9 |
| Rain mm | 38 / 13–51 | 29 / 9–40 | 29 / 14–36 | 35 / 22–45 | 46 / 35–63 | 74 / 53–88 | 78 / 61–112 | 71 / 48–94 | 59 / 37–73 | 53 / 26–73 | 46 / 22–57 | 42 / 17–55 |
| DLI | 4 / 3–8 | 10 / 8–15 | 19 / 17–25 | 28 / 25–34 | 35 / 33–39 | 37 / 34–40 | 35 / 33–37 | 27 / 25–32 | 18 / 16–24 | 9 / 8–15 | 5 / 3–9 | 3 / 2–6 |
| RH % | 72 / 63–75 | 69 / 60–71 | 63 / 57–65 | 57 / 53–58 | 55 / 51–56 | 57 / 54–59 | 59 / 56–60 | 60 / 56–61 | 60 / 56–63 | 63 / 57–65 | 68 / 60–70 | 71 / 62–73 |
Each figure is the median across the 491 grid cells holding the 603 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 701:4714 (54.925, 55.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -43.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -31.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.0 °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 491 distinct grid cells holding the 603 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 701:4714 (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 55.00_55.625, lapse-corrected -26 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 97 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Анна Митрошенкова, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) jollero, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Oleg Kosterin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).
Photographs: iNaturalist 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 Caragana arborescens, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
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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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.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 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)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 138 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.