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Cyclamen graecum; photograph (c) thymios, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) thymios, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-19

Cyclamen graecum Link

Greek cyclamen; Greek sowbread

Primulaceae · Greece, Kriti · listed by its genus as a bulb, tuber or caudex

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Cyclamen graecum, photograph (c) thymios, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Cyclamen graecum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyclamen graecum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyclamen graecum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyclamen graecum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyclamen graecum, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 89 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
1.1°C
Record low -3.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
611mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
13–49DLI
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 winters: the rain comes November to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Cyclamen graecum, the Greek cyclamen, is a perennial plant in the flowering plant family Primulaceae that grows from a tuber. It is native to southern Greece and Crete, and is prized for its variable leaf forms, which include some of the most striking of any cyclamen.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cyclamen graecum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Cyclamen

Cyclamen is a genus of 25 species of perennial flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. In English, it is known by the common name sowbread, or, by the genus name as cyclamen. The species are native to Europe and the Mediterranean Basin east to the Caucasus and Iran, with one species in Somalia. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex, listed under the genus Cyclamen in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tuberous geophyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (435 mm of 584 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 11.3 °C against a yearly mean of 17.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

584 mm in the median year at the habitat, 435 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 110 mm, driest month July at 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 403 mm to 983 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 611 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 584 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
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 1.1 °C, the absolute minimum -3.8 °C, 54 frost nights in 44 years, 1.2 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 6.8 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 2.8 °C to 10.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.4 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.1 °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 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 -25 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.

Group. Listed under the genus Cyclamen in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tuberous geophyte”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cyclamen graecum through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 6.8 °C; 584 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.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost37.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-3.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 13–49RH 51–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 260 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 °C11 / 10–1312 / 10–1314 / 12–1517 / 15–2022 / 18–2526 / 23–3028 / 25–3228 / 25–3225 / 23–2821 / 19–2316 / 15–1813 / 11–15
Night °C7 / 3–107 / 3–108 / 5–1111 / 8–1415 / 12–1720 / 16–2122 / 19–2422 / 19–2420 / 16–2216 / 12–1912 / 8–159 / 5–12
Rain mm98 / 58–16872 / 42–12362 / 46–8635 / 26–5319 / 12–347 / 3–145 / 1–147 / 2–1819 / 14–4057 / 37–9293 / 66–193110 / 69–200
DLI15 / 13–1721 / 19–2229 / 27–3138 / 37–4044 / 43–4649 / 48–5148 / 47–5043 / 42–4534 / 33–3624 / 22–2616 / 14–1813 / 11–14
RH %61 / 59–6460 / 58–6359 / 57–6157 / 53–5955 / 50–5952 / 47–5851 / 48–5753 / 49–5855 / 53–5958 / 57–6161 / 59–6362 / 60–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 260 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (587 records in those cells; 4 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are 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 1039:4058 (38.025, 22.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.3 °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 260 distinct grid cells holding 587 of the 597 in-range records (4 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1039:4058 (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_23.125, lapse-corrected -25 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 209 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.
NativeGreece, Kriti · introduced: Great Britain · 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 marker37.965, 23.485 · in the densest population, 478 records (67% of those in range)
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 712 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 587 of them in the land cells it reads, of 597 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 209 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 13 km away. 154 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.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 712 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cyclamen graecum, photograph 1did not loadCyclamen graecum, photograph 2did not loadCyclamen graecum, photograph 3did not loadCyclamen graecum, photograph 4did not loadCyclamen graecum, photograph 5did not loadCyclamen graecum, photograph 6did not load

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

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

Serapias bergonii Serapias bergonii Greek Plowshare Photo: CC0, author not statedMuscari pulchellum Muscari pulchellum Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY, Pantazi KaterinaVicia eriocarpa Vicia eriocarpa Woolly Pod Vetch Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloGagea peduncularis Gagea peduncularis Long-stalked Star-of-Bethlehem Photo: CC BY, Eleftherios Katsillis Silene fabaria Caryophyllaceae Origanum majorana Origanum majorana Pot marjoram Photo: CC BY, Daniel Cahen

Other Cyclamen 17 in the reference

Cyclamen africanum Cyclamen africanum African cyclamen Photo: CC BY, Karim HaddadCyclamen alpinum Cyclamen alpinum Alpine Cyclamen Photo: CC0, author not statedCyclamen balearicum Cyclamen balearicum Majorca cyclamen Photo: CC BY, Julien RenoultCyclamen cilicium Cyclamen cilicium Primulaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, ZcebeciCyclamen coum Cyclamen coum Eastern sowbread Photo: CC BY, Asrın AkıncıoğluCyclamen creticum Cyclamen creticum Cretan Sowbread Photo: CC BY, Daniel CahenCyclamen cyprium Cyclamen cyprium Cyprus Cyclamen Photo: CC BY, Marios ThomaCyclamen hederifolium Cyclamen hederifolium Sowbread Photo: CC BY, Vasileia SefCyclamen intaminatum Cyclamen intaminatum Primulaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, AveraterCyclamen libanoticum Cyclamen libanoticum Lebanon Cyclamen Photo: CC BY, Keith EdkinsCyclamen mirabile Cyclamen mirabile Primulaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Francine RiezCyclamen parviflorum Cyclamen parviflorum Small-flowered Cyclamen Photo: CC BY-SA, Gerd Knoche all 18 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Cyclaminus graeca. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Primulaceae
Described by
Link
Native to
Greece, Kriti
Wild records
712 in range · 209 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 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
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; 22 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (22 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 38.00_23.125, lapse-corrected -25 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 2026-10-22
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 18 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…