Species
+

Cyclamen persicum Mill.

Common Cyclamen, Cyclamen, Florist's Cyclamen, Persian Cyclamen

Climate known 73 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

Cyclamen persicum, the Persian cyclamen, is a species of flowering herbaceous perennial plant growing from a tuber, native to rocky hillsides, shrubland, and woodland up to 1,200 m (3,900 ft) above sea level, from south-central Turkey to the Levant. Cultivars of this species are the commonly seen florist's cyclamen.

Text from Wikipedia, “Cyclamen persicum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

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 ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Cyclamen”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Primulaceae
Described by
Mill.
Native to
Greece, Kriti, Algeria +6
Wild records
1526 in range· 53 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Aug, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
647mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Jan 164 mm (CHELSA)
Light
18–50DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Cyclamen, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to February in the northern hemisphere (November to February at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 647 mm a year, wettest January at 164 mm, driest June at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 50 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 1.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Cyclamen albidum Jord.; Cyclamen aleppicum Fisch.; Cyclamen aleppicum Fisch. ex Hoffmanns.; Cyclamen aleppicum subsp. puniceum Glasau; Cyclamen antiochium Decne. and 20 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Cyclamen, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to February in the northern hemisphere (November to February at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (509 mm of 647 mm) falls in November to February, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 13.1 °C against a yearly mean of 19.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to August.

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 647 mm a year, wettest January at 164 mm, driest June at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

647 mm a year at the habitat, 509 mm of it November to February. Wettest month January at 164 mm, driest June at 1 mm; 4 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 500 mm to 894 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: 18 to 50 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 50 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 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

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 1.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 1.5 °C, the absolute minimum -3.3 °C, about 1 frost night a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 3.5 °C to 10.7 °C), warmest day 31.7 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.5 °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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 59% 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 15 °C in Jan to 32 °C in Aug; mean night from 7 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 647 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 312 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -3.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 43.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost43.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-3.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 18–50RH 54–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 312 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C15 / 12–1716 / 13–1719 / 15–2023 / 19–2527 / 22–2930 / 26–3231 / 28–3432 / 28–3430 / 27–3227 / 24–2921 / 18–2317 / 14–18
Night °C7 / 4–117 / 4–119 / 6–1212 / 9–1415 / 13–1718 / 16–2121 / 18–2321 / 19–2420 / 17–2317 / 14–2012 / 9–169 / 5–13
Rain mm164 / 119–212131 / 98–17477 / 57–10523 / 17–407 / 5–171 / 1–41 / 0–21 / 0–22 / 2–726 / 18–4785 / 61–125129 / 96–175
DLI19 / 18–2025 / 23–2633 / 32–3441 / 40–4247 / 47–4850 / 49–5149 / 48–5045 / 44–4738 / 37–3929 / 28–3022 / 20–2318 / 16–19
RH %59 / 57–6059 / 57–6057 / 55–5955 / 51–5954 / 50–6056 / 51–6157 / 52–6259 / 54–6358 / 54–6157 / 54–5956 / 54–5858 / 56–60

Each figure is the median across the 312 grid cells holding the 1498 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 1143:4313 (32.825, 35.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.0 °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 312 distinct grid cells holding the 1498 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1143:4313 (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 33.00_35.625, lapse-corrected -259 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 133 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeGreece, Kriti, Algeria, Tunisia, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey· introduced: Italy
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker32.608, 35.117 · in the densest population, 1411 records (92% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1526 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 53 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 381 km away. 42 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 28 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1526 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cyclamen persicumCyclamen persicumCyclamen persicumCyclamen persicumCyclamen persicumCyclamen persicumCyclamen persicumCyclamen persicum

Photographs: (c) Eleftherios Katsillis, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) jamie-aa, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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 Cyclamen persicum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Traditional knowledge of wild edible plants used in Palestine (Northern West Bank): A comparative study
Mohammed S. Ali-Shtayeh, Rana M. Jamous, Jehan H Al-Shafie', Wafa' A Elgharabah (2008) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Adsorption of diclofenac from aqueous solution using Cyclamen persicum tubers based activated carbon (CTAC)
Shehdeh Jodeh, Fatima Abdelwahab, Nidal Jaradat, Ismail Warad (2015) · Journal of the Association of Arab Universities for Basic and Applied Sciences
[Serious plant poisonings in Switzerland 1966-1994. Case analysis from the Swiss Toxicology Information Center].
R Jaspersen-Schib, L Theus, M Guirguis-Oeschger, B Gossweiler (1996) · PubMed
Does Pollination Induce Corolla Abscission of Cyclamen Flowers by Promoting Ethylene Production?
Abraham H. Halevy, C.S. Whitehead, Anton M. Kofranek (1984) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Multi-petal cyclamen flowers produced by AGAMOUS chimeric repressor expression
Yuri Tanaka, Yoshimi Oshima, Tomomichi Yamamura, Masao Sugiyama (2013) · Scientific Reports
Two SERK genes are markers of pluripotency in Cyclamen persicum Mill.
M. Savona, Roberto Mattioli, S.A. Nigro, Giuseppina Falasca (2011) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Influence of light quality and photoperiod on flowering of Cyclamen persicum Mill. cv. ‘Dixie White’
Jeong Wook Heo, Chun‐Woo Lee, Hosakatte Niranjana Murthy, Kee‐Yoeup Paek (2003) · Plant Growth Regulation
Somatic embryogenesis of Cyclamen persicum in liquid medium
Marc Kreuger, Erik Postma, Yvon Brouwer, Gerrit‐Jan van Holst (1995) · Physiologia Plantarum
From callus to embryo: a proteomic view on the development and maturation of somatic embryos in Cyclamen persicum
Christina Rode, Kathrin Lindhorst, Hans‐Peter Braun, Traud Winkelmann (2011) · Planta
In vitro determination of the spermicidal activity of plant saponins.
M Primorac, D Sekulović, Slavica Antonić (1985) · PubMed

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.

Other Cyclamen 2 in the reference

History & registers

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 answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata 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: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.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 answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 29 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.