Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Caragana spinosa; photograph Urgamal Magsar, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYUrgamal Magsar, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Caragana spinosa (L.) Vahl ex Hornem.

Fabaceae · Altay, Buryatiya +5

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Caragana spinosa, photograph Urgamal Magsar, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCaragana spinosa, photograph Urgamal Magsar, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCaragana spinosa, photograph Urgamal Magsar, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCaragana spinosa, photograph Urgamal Magsar, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCaragana spinosa, photograph Urgamal Magsar, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCaragana spinosa, photograph Oleg Kosterin, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-34.6°C
Record low -46.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
23°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
275mm
4 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
8–42DLI
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 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.

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Caragana", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (198 mm of 263 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 15.2 °C against a yearly mean of -0.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

263 mm in the median year at the habitat, 198 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 69 mm, driest month February at 3 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 135 mm to 417 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 275 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 263 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: 8 to 42 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 6, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -34.6 °C, the absolute minimum -46.6 °C, 9,320 frost nights in 44 years, 211.8 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -25.7 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -28.4 °C to -21.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 23.4 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -34.6 °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: 50 to 64% 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 -72 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 Caragana spinosa through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 23 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -25.7 °C; 263 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°frost32.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-46.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 8–42RH 50–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 105 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-15 / -16–-9-10 / -11–-5-1 / -5–28 / 4–1216 / 11–1921 / 17–2423 / 19–2521 / 17–2315 / 11–176 / 2–8-5 / -8–-2-13 / -15–-8
Night °C-26 / -28–-21-23 / -26–-19-15 / -19–-11-5 / -9–-23 / -1–59 / 5–1212 / 7–1410 / 5–123 / -1–6-4 / -9–-2-15 / -20–-12-22 / -25–-19
Rain mm5 / 2–123 / 2–84 / 3–119 / 5–1618 / 8–3444 / 22–6969 / 34–10259 / 25–8926 / 10–459 / 6–209 / 3–208 / 2–16
DLI10 / 8–1317 / 15–2128 / 25–3137 / 33–4042 / 40–4642 / 40–4538 / 36–4234 / 30–3827 / 23–3118 / 15–2211 / 9–148 / 6–11
RH %64 / 54–7161 / 52–6655 / 49–5850 / 45–5250 / 44–5253 / 46–5556 / 49–5856 / 49–5955 / 47–5955 / 48–5959 / 50–6363 / 53–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 105 grid cells holding the 143 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 745:5673 (52.725, 103.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -46.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -34.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.9 °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 105 distinct grid cells holding 143 of the 143 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 745:5673 (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 52.50_103.750, lapse-corrected -72 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 426 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.
NativeAltay, Buryatiya, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Mongolia · introduced: Belarus, Ukraine · 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 marker51.138, 94.477 · in the densest population, 168 records (65% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 258 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 143 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 140 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 106 km away. 8 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 115 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.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 2943239 (Caragana spinosa (L.) DC.): Kew's file holds it as Caragana spinosa (L.) Vahl ex Hornem. (accepted); 44 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
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 258 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Caragana spinosa, photograph 1did not loadCaragana spinosa, photograph 2did not loadCaragana spinosa, photograph 3did not loadCaragana spinosa, photograph 4did not loadCaragana spinosa, photograph 5did not loadCaragana spinosa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Urgamal Magsar, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (5); Oleg Kosterin, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF.

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

Stipa krylovii Stipa krylovii Poaceae Photo: CC BY, Urgamal MagsarSalix ledebouriana Salix ledebouriana Salicaceae Photo: CC BY, Urgamal MagsarAdenophora stenanthina Adenophora stenanthina Campanulaceae Photo: CC BY, Urgamal MagsarAllium bidentatum Allium bidentatum Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY, Urgamal MagsarPulsatilla turczaninovii Pulsatilla turczaninovii Slenderleaf pulsatilla Photo: CC BY, Urgamal MagsarTaraxacum leucanthum Taraxacum leucanthum White-flowered dandelion Photo: CC BY, Анна Васильченко

Other Caragana 25 in the reference

Caragana ambigua Fabaceae Caragana arborescens Caragana arborescens Siberian pea-tree Photo: CC BY, Анна МитрошенковаCaragana aurantiaca Caragana aurantiaca Dwarf peashrub Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz Caragana bicolor Fabaceae Caragana boisii Caragana boisii Siberian pea-tree Photo: CC BY-SA, AthenchenCaragana brevispina Caragana brevispina Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Sagnik Dutta Roy Caragana decorticans Fabaceae Caragana densa Caragana densa Fabaceae Photo: CC0, DaderotCaragana erinacea Caragana erinacea Fabaceae Photo: CC0, Daderot Caragana franchetiana Fabaceae Caragana frutex Caragana frutex Russian peashrub Photo: CC BY, Andrew Bazdyrev Caragana gerardiana Fabaceae all 26 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Aspalathus spinosus; Caragana ferox; Caragana spinosa var. foliosa; Caragana spinosissima; Robinia ferox and 2 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFWikidataIPNIPOWO

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(L.) Vahl ex Hornem.
Native to
Altay, Buryatiya, Krasnoyarsk +4
Wild records
258 in range · 140 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 answeredasked 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 44 records of GBIF's key 2943239, Caragana spinosa (L.) DC. (Kew's file holds it as Caragana spinosa (L.) Vahl ex Hornem. (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search API; 7 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (7 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 52.50_103.750, lapse-corrected -72 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Caragana spinosa (L.) Vahl ex Hornem. (no item's number)
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 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 14 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…