Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Cerastium elongatum; photograph Jared Shorma, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYJared Shorma, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Cerastium elongatum Pursh

Caryophyllaceae · France, Spain +66

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Cerastium elongatum, photograph Ryan Sorrells, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCerastium elongatum, photograph Ryan Sorrells, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCerastium elongatum, photograph Ryan Sorrells, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCerastium elongatum, photograph Ryan Sorrells, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCerastium elongatum, photograph Ryan Sorrells, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCerastium elongatum, photograph Ryan Sorrells, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-19.8°C
Record low -30.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
18°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,545mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
9–40DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Cerastium

Cerastium is a genus of annual, winter annual, or perennial flowering plants belonging to the family Caryophyllaceae. They are commonly called mouse-ears or mouse-ear chickweeds. There are 214 accepted species, found nearly worldwide but with the greatest concentration in the northern temperate regions. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,094 mm of 1,531 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and April to June. Mean temperature moves 19.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to July and October to December.

Rain

1,531 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,094 mm of it September to January and April to June. Wettest month October at 156 mm, driest month February at 95 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 969 mm to 2,173 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,545 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,531 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: 9 to 40 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 7, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -19.8 °C, the absolute minimum -30.3 °C, 8,818 frost nights in 44 years, 200.4 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 24.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -11.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -16.9 °C to -4.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 17.6 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -19.8 °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: 58 to 62% 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 -84 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 Cerastium elongatum through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 18 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -11.3 °C; 1,531 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.-40°-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost24.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-30.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 9–40RH 58–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 696 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-3 / -9–4-1 / -7–52 / -4–85 / -1–1110 / 4–1615 / 10–2018 / 13–2317 / 13–2314 / 9–199 / 4–143 / -3–8-2 / -8–4
Night °C-11 / -17–-4-11 / -16–-4-7 / -13–-2-4 / -9–10 / -5–64 / -1–97 / 2–127 / 2–124 / -1–90 / -6–5-7 / -12–0-11 / -16–-3
Rain mm118 / 71–17995 / 55–145116 / 68–165125 / 75–167148 / 91–211129 / 81–199108 / 65–195118 / 75–196139 / 81–182156 / 90–209140 / 88–191139 / 85–202
DLI11 / 8–1518 / 14–2227 / 22–3134 / 30–3838 / 34–4140 / 37–4340 / 37–4435 / 31–3927 / 24–3018 / 15–2212 / 9–169 / 7–13
RH %58 / 54–6359 / 55–6260 / 56–6261 / 58–6362 / 59–6461 / 58–6459 / 56–6360 / 56–6362 / 58–6461 / 58–6461 / 56–6560 / 55–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 696 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1388 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), 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 904:3737 (44.775, 6.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -30.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -19.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 24.3 °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 696 distinct grid cells holding 1388 of the 1389 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 904:3737 (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 45.00_6.875, lapse-corrected -84 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1907 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.
NativeFrance, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Kazakhstan, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Korea, Alaska, Greenland, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Labrador, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Maryland, Virginia, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile South, Falkland Is. · 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 marker45.061, 6.179 · in the densest population, 1221 records (84% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1459 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1388 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1389 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1414 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 28 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 70 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 of the 1459 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cerastium elongatum, photograph 1did not loadCerastium elongatum, photograph 2did not loadCerastium elongatum, photograph 3did not loadCerastium elongatum, photograph 4did not loadCerastium elongatum, photograph 5did not loadCerastium elongatum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Ryan Sorrells, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (6).

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

Eryngium alpinum Eryngium alpinum Alpine Sea Holly Photo: CC BY, Katrin SimonGalium pseudohelveticum Galium pseudohelveticum Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, LaurentParadisea liliastrum Paradisea liliastrum St Bruno's Lily Photo: CC BY, mariusHelictotrichon parlatorei Helictotrichon parlatorei Poaceae Photo: CC BY, Milan ChytrýChaerophyllum villarsii Chaerophyllum villarsii Villar's chervil Photo: CC BY, Katrin SimonPulsatilla alpina Pulsatilla alpina Ranunculaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Emanuele Santarelli

Other Cerastium 26 in the reference

Cerastium alpinum Cerastium alpinum Alpine mouse-ear Photo: CC BY, Denys VynokurovCerastium arcticum Cerastium arcticum Arctic Mouse-ear Photo: CC BY, Ingvild Riska Cerastium argenteum Caryophyllaceae Cerastium arvense Cerastium arvense Field mouse-ear Photo: CC0, author not statedCerastium banaticum Cerastium banaticum Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizCerastium biebersteinii Cerastium biebersteinii Snow-in-summer Photo: CC BY, Sergey CherkasovCerastium brachypetalum Cerastium brachypetalum Grey mouse-ear Photo: CC BY, Eric WeissgerberCerastium candidissimum Cerastium candidissimum Greek Snow-In-Summer Photo: CC BY, Pantazi KaterinaCerastium davuricum Cerastium davuricum Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC BY, ivansemenkovCerastium decalvans Cerastium decalvans Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC0, Mirko UbovićCerastium fontanum Cerastium fontanum Common mouse-ear Photo: CC0, author not statedCerastium gibraltaricum Cerastium gibraltaricum Gibraltar chickweed Photo: CC BY-SA, jlblancopastor all 27 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Cerastium alexandrei; Cerastium alsophilum; Cerastium angustatum; Cerastium arvense f. minus; Cerastium arvense subsp. strictum and 31 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Cerastium latifolium Fenzl is an older name of this species, not Cerastium latifolium, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFIPNIPOWO

The record

Family
Caryophyllaceae
Described by
Pursh
Native to
France, Spain, Italy +65
Wild records
1459 in range · 1414 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; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 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 45.00_6.875, lapse-corrected -84 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Cerastium elongatum Pursh (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 93 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…