Species
+

Cydonia oblonga Mill.

Almindelig kvæde, Burmelheiro, Common Quince, Kwitenbuum

Climate known 99 photographs
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

The quince is the sole member of the genus Cydonia in the Malinae subtribe of the Rosaceae family. It is a deciduous tree that bears hard, aromatic bright golden-yellow pome fruit, similar in appearance to a pear. Ripe quince fruits are hard, tart, and astringent. They are eaten raw or processed into jam, quince cheese, or alcoholic drinks.

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

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
Mill.
Native to
Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus +3
Wild records
13 in range· 8 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Aug, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
614mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Dec 69 mm (CHELSA)
Light
9–42DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (November to May and September in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 614 mm a year, wettest December at 69 mm, driest July at 40 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -10.9 °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 Bollwilleria malifolia Zabel; Crataegus serotina Salisb.; Cydonia communis Loisel.; Cydonia communis var. lusitanica (Mill.) Loisel.; Cydonia communis var. maliformis (Mill.) Loisel. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (November to May and September in the northern hemisphere).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (433 mm of 614 mm) takes 8 months, November to May and September. Mean temperature moves 22.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March and May to November.

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 614 mm a year, wettest December at 69 mm, driest July at 40 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

614 mm a year at the habitat, 433 mm of it November to May and September. Wettest month December at 69 mm, driest July at 40 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 255 mm to 1148 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: 9 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 42 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 7, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

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 -10.9 °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 -10.9 °C, the absolute minimum -17.8 °C, about 93 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -2.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells -3.3 °C to 0.7 °C), warmest day 28.4 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -10.9 °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: 57 to 65% 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 5 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Aug; mean night from -2 °C in Jan to 20 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 614 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 13 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -17.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 43.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°20°40°60°frost43.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-17.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 9–42RH 57–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 13 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 °C5 / 4–75 / 4–89 / 7–1315 / 12–1921 / 18–2425 / 23–2928 / 26–3328 / 26–3323 / 21–2817 / 16–2110 / 10–146 / 5–9
Night °C-2 / -3–1-1 / -3–12 / -0–47 / 5–912 / 10–1417 / 14–2020 / 17–2320 / 17–2216 / 12–1810 / 7–124 / 2–7-1 / -2–2
Rain mm54 / 21–13649 / 21–10250 / 24–9849 / 22–9954 / 20–9448 / 4–9540 / 2–7844 / 2–8250 / 6–7449 / 32–8058 / 36–13969 / 23–157
DLI11 / 9–1416 / 15–2124 / 22–2832 / 29–3738 / 36–4342 / 39–4842 / 39–4837 / 34–4428 / 25–3518 / 17–2511 / 10–169 / 7–12
RH %64 / 59–6663 / 58–6463 / 57–6560 / 54–6360 / 47–6360 / 41–6357 / 41–6057 / 41–6058 / 44–6161 / 50–6364 / 56–6565 / 58–66

Each figure is the median across the 13 grid cells holding the 13 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 1004:4889 (39.775, 64.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -10.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.8 °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 13 distinct grid cells holding the 13 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1004:4889 (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 40.00_64.375, lapse-corrected +4 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 227 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.
NativeTadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Iran, Iraq· introduced: Great Britain, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Krym, Ukraine, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Madeira, Gulf of Guinea Is., Eritrea, Ethiopia, Free State, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Lebanon-Syria, Turkey, West Himalaya, South Australia, New Zealand North, Ontario, Illinois, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, California, Maryland, El Salvador, Guatemala, Bolivia
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker44.669, 37.773 · in the densest population, 6 records (46% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 13 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 8 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 45 km away. 1912 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 13 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cydonia oblongaCydonia oblongaCydonia oblongaCydonia oblongaCydonia oblongaCydonia oblongaCydonia oblongaCydonia oblonga

Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

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

Quince ( Cydonia oblonga Miller) Fruit (Pulp, Peel, and Seed) and Jam: Antioxidant Activity
Branca M. Silva, Paula B. Andrade, Patrı́cia Valentão, Federico Ferreres (2004) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Antimicrobial Activity of Tunisian Quince (Cydonia oblonga Miller) Pulp and Peel Polyphenolic Extracts
Sami Fattouch, Pierluigi Caboni, Valentina Coroneo, Carlo Ignazio Giovanni Tuberoso (2007) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Approach to the study of C‐glycosyl flavones by ion trap HPLC‐PAD‐ESI/MS/MS: application to seeds of quince (Cydonia oblonga)
Federico Ferreres, Branca M. Silva, Paula B. Andrade, Rosa M. Seabra (2003) · Phytochemical Analysis
Attenuation of UV radiation by plant cuticles from woody species
P. KRAUSS, Claus Markstädter, Markus Riederer (1997) · Plant Cell & Environment
Polyphenolic Composition, Antioxidant Activity, and Polyphenol Oxidase (PPO) Activity of Quince (Cydonia oblonga Miller) Varieties
Aneta Wojdyło, Jan Oszmiański, P. Bielicki (2013) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Evaluation of free radical-scavenging and antihemolytic activities of quince (Cydonia oblonga) leaf: A comparative study with green tea (Camellia sinensis)
Rossana M. Costa, Ana S. Magalhães, José Alberto Pereira, Paula B. Andrade (2009) · Food and Chemical Toxicology
Green synthesis of carbon quantum dots using quince fruit (Cydonia oblonga) powder as carbon precursor: Application in cell imaging and As3+ determination
Zahra Ramezani, Maryam Qorbanpour, Nadereh Rahbar (2018) · Colloids and Surfaces A Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects
Protective effect of quince (Cydonia oblonga Miller) fruit against oxidative hemolysis of human erythrocytes
Ana S. Magalhães, Branca M. Silva, José Alberto Pereira, Paula B. Andrade (2009) · Food and Chemical Toxicology
Trichome density and its protective potential against ultraviolet-B radiation damage during leaf development
George Karabourniotis, Dimitris Kotsabassidis, Yiannis Manetas (1995) · Canadian Journal of Botany
The Phenolic compound Kaempferol overcomes 5-fluorouracil resistance in human resistant LS174 colon cancer cells
Ichrak Riahi-Chebbi, Soumaya Souid, Houcemeddine Othman, Meriam Haoues (2019) · Scientific Reports
Cydonia oblonga M., A Medicinal Plant Rich in Phytonutrients for Pharmaceuticals
Muhammad Ashraf, Gulzar Muhammad, Muhammad Ajaz Hussain, Syed Nasir Abbas Bukhari (2016) · Frontiers in Pharmacology
Phenolic Profile of Quince Fruit ( Cydonia oblonga Miller) (Pulp and Peel)
Branca M. Silva, Paula B. Andrade, Federico Ferreres, Ana L. Domingues (2002) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

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.

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 90 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.