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Cherleria obtusiloba; photograph (c) Anders Hastings, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Anders Hastings, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-08

Cherleria obtusiloba (Rydb.) A.J.Moore & Dillenb.

Alpine stitchwort; Twinflower stitchwort; Alpine sandwort; Twinflower sandwort

Caryophyllaceae · Yakutskiya, Kamchatka +17

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Cherleria obtusiloba, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCherleria obtusiloba, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCherleria obtusiloba, photograph (c) Anders Hastings, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cherleria obtusiloba, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCherleria obtusiloba, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCherleria obtusiloba, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 63 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-28.7°C
Record low -40.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
19°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
857mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
11–47DLI
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.

Summary

Cherleria obtusiloba is a perennial alpine herb known by the common names alpine sandwort and twinflower stitchwort. It is native to the mountains of western North America from the High Sierra of California to the Colorado Rockies north to Alaska, and to far northeastern Russia (Magadan, Kamchatka, and Yakutia). This is a low plant forming mats or clumps and bearing small thimble-shaped flowers with curving white petals.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cherleria obtusiloba", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (595 mm of 800 mm) takes 8 months, March to October. Mean temperature moves 24.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to April.

Rain

800 mm in the median year at the habitat, 595 mm of it March to October. Wettest month July at 87 mm, driest months (2 at 48 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 422 mm to 1,443 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 857 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 800 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: 11 to 47 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 0, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -28.7 °C, the absolute minimum -40.2 °C, 12,807 frost nights in 44 years, 291.1 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 22.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -17.8 °C in December (across the grid cells of the range -25.4 °C to -12.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 18.5 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -28.7 °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: 51 to 60% 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 +501 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 Cherleria obtusiloba through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 19 °C; coldest month December, mean nightly low -17.8 °C; 800 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°frost22.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-40.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 11–47RH 51–60%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 637 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-7 / -22–-3-5 / -20–-2-2 / -16–22 / -7–68 / 3–1214 / 11–1819 / 14–2117 / 12–2013 / 5–165 / -5–9-3 / -15–1-7 / -19–-3
Night °C-17 / -27–-11-16 / -26–-11-13 / -23–-8-9 / -14–-5-4 / -7–02 / -1–66 / 3–95 / 2–80 / -2–4-6 / -11–-2-14 / -21–-8-18 / -25–-12
Rain mm48 / 21–17948 / 18–13066 / 16–12874 / 13–11680 / 24–12970 / 41–13187 / 43–13585 / 42–14170 / 40–11563 / 34–12356 / 26–16153 / 24–186
DLI13 / 1–2120 / 5–2729 / 15–3638 / 28–4444 / 36–4947 / 37–5146 / 31–4940 / 21–4333 / 14–3822 / 6–3014 / 1–2211 / 0–18
RH %60 / 52–7359 / 54–7058 / 53–6656 / 52–6454 / 50–6252 / 46–6151 / 45–6153 / 45–6352 / 48–6554 / 50–6858 / 51–7260 / 52–73
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 637 grid cells holding the 1240 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 1041:1445 (37.925, -107.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -40.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -28.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 22.0 °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 637 distinct grid cells holding 1240 of the 1240 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1041:1445 (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 38.00_-107.500, lapse-corrected +501 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 3723 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.
NativeYakutskiya, Kamchatka, Magadan, Alaska, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico · 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 marker39.644, -105.775 · in the densest population, 636 records (39% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “subalpine or subarctic” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1649 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1240 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 866 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 3 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 409 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 1649 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cherleria obtusiloba, photograph 1did not loadCherleria obtusiloba, photograph 2did not loadCherleria obtusiloba, photograph 3did not loadCherleria obtusiloba, photograph 4did not loadCherleria obtusiloba, photograph 5did not loadCherleria obtusiloba, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (5); (c) Anders Hastings, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Erigeron grandiflorus Erigeron grandiflorus Large-flowered fleabane Photo: CC BY, Hank RaizenPolemonium viscosum Polemonium viscosum Sticky Jacob's-ladder Photo: CC BY, Adam KamalGeum rossii Geum rossii Ross' avens Photo: CC BY, Whitney Brook MatsonRhodiola rhodantha Rhodiola rhodantha Rose-crown Photo: CC0, author not statedClaytonia megarhiza Claytonia megarhiza Alpine spring-beauty Photo: CC BY-SA, Robert WebsterMertensia tweedyi Mertensia tweedyi Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY, Jason Grant

Other Cherleria 7 in the reference

Cherleria arctica Cherleria arctica Arctic sandwort Photo: CC BY, Urgamal MagsarCherleria biflora Cherleria biflora Mountain sandwort Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerCherleria capillacea Cherleria capillacea Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC BY, Augustin SoulardCherleria circassica Cherleria circassica Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC BY, Юлия ЗахаренкоCherleria langii Cherleria langii Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedCherleria laricifolia Cherleria laricifolia Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Emanuele SantarelliCherleria sedoides Cherleria sedoides Cyphel Photo: CC BY, Katrin Simon

Names & registers

Also known as Alsinopsis obtusiloba; Arenaria biflora var. obtusa; Arenaria obtusa; Arenaria obtusiloba; Arenaria obtusiloba f. rosea and 3 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Caryophyllaceae
Described by
(Rydb.) A.J.Moore & Dillenb.
Native to
Yakutskiya, Kamchatka, Magadan +16
Wild records
1649 in range · 866 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 38.00_-107.500, lapse-corrected +501 m at 6.5 °C/km
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 78 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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