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Cynoglossum columnae; photograph fmunoz, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYfmunoz, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Cynoglossum columnae Ten.

Boraginaceae · Albania, Greece +6

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Cynoglossum columnae Ten.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Biv.

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Cynoglossum columnae, photograph fmunoz, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCynoglossum columnae, photograph Felicia Seichter, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCynoglossum columnae, photograph Daniel Cahen, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCynoglossum columnae, photograph Daniel Cahen, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCynoglossum columnae, photograph connyklein, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCynoglossum columnae, photograph connyklein, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-3.0°C
Record low -9.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
981mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
12–48DLI
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 October to February, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Cynoglossum

Cynoglossum is a genus of small-flowered plants in the family Boraginaceae. It includes 81 species native to Eurasia, Africa, New Guinea, and Australia.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (632 mm of 886 mm) falls in October to February, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 10.8 °C against a yearly mean of 15.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to August.

Rain

886 mm in the median year at the habitat, 632 mm of it October to February. Wettest month December at 161 mm, driest month July at 10 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 503 mm to 1,423 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 981 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 886 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: 12 to 48 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 9, 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 -3.0 °C, the absolute minimum -9.8 °C, 728 frost nights in 44 years, 16.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 4.4 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range -2.5 °C to 9.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.4 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.0 °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: 52 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 -161 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 Cynoglossum columnae through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 4.4 °C; 886 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.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost35.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-9.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 12–48RH 52–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 117 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 °C10 / 5–1310 / 6–1313 / 9–1515 / 13–1920 / 17–2324 / 21–2826 / 23–3026 / 24–3023 / 21–2719 / 16–2215 / 10–1811 / 6–14
Night °C5 / -3–104 / -3–106 / 0–119 / 3–1313 / 8–1717 / 11–2120 / 14–2320 / 14–2417 / 11–2114 / 7–189 / 2–146 / -1–12
Rain mm119 / 73–184106 / 67–14583 / 55–11956 / 31–11430 / 15–9612 / 3–8210 / 1–4815 / 2–7348 / 17–12894 / 45–165152 / 76–219161 / 88–221
DLI14 / 11–1820 / 17–2328 / 25–3237 / 33–4043 / 39–4648 / 43–5147 / 43–5042 / 38–4633 / 28–3723 / 19–2715 / 12–1912 / 9–15
RH %61 / 58–6560 / 57–6359 / 57–6158 / 53–6056 / 50–6055 / 47–5952 / 48–5854 / 49–5857 / 53–6059 / 57–6161 / 59–6362 / 59–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 117 grid cells holding the 174 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 924:3916 (43.775, 15.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -9.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.9 °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 117 distinct grid cells holding 174 of the 174 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 924:3916 (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 44.00_15.625, lapse-corrected -161 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 46 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.
NativeAlbania, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, East Aegean Is., Turkey · 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 marker38.863, 21.683 · in the densest population, 351 records (55% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 637 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 174 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 416 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 15 km away. 31 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 463 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.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 4059926 (Rindera columnae (Ten.) Roem. & Schult.): Kew's file holds it as Rindera columnae (Ten.) Roem. & Schult. (synonym under Cynoglossum columnae Ten.); 460 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 637 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cynoglossum columnae, photograph 1did not loadCynoglossum columnae, photograph 2did not loadCynoglossum columnae, photograph 3did not loadCynoglossum columnae, photograph 4did not loadCynoglossum columnae, photograph 5did not loadCynoglossum columnae, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: fmunoz, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Felicia Seichter, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Daniel Cahen, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); connyklein, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

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

Orchis quadripunctata Orchis quadripunctata Four-spotted Orchid Photo: CC BY, Pantazi KaterinaEuphorbia oblongata Euphorbia oblongata Egg-leaf spurge Photo: CC BY, Justin JohnsenDryopteris pallida Dryopteris pallida Dryopteridaceae Photo: CC BY, Marios ThomaCampanula topaliana Campanula topaliana Campanulaceae Photo: CC BY, froggymumSilene cretica Silene cretica Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC BY, Eleftherios KatsillisCrocus longiflorus Crocus longiflorus Italian crocus Photo: CC BY, Lorenzo Emanuele Labate

Other Cynoglossum 12 in the reference

Cynoglossum amabile Cynoglossum amabile Chinese hound's tongue Photo: CC BY, Álvaro Rivas GodinCynoglossum australe Cynoglossum australe Australian Hound's-tongue Photo: CC0, author not stated Cynoglossum brandii Boraginaceae Cynoglossum cheirifolium Boraginaceae Cynoglossum clandestinum Cynoglossum clandestinum Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY, Katrin SimonCynoglossum creticum Cynoglossum creticum Blue Hound's tongue Photo: CC BY-SA, Grzegorz GrzejszczakCynoglossum germanicum Cynoglossum germanicum Green hound's-tongue Photo: CC BY, Vladimír FukaCynoglossum lanceolatum Cynoglossum lanceolatum Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY, Jayesh Patil from Mumbai, IndiaCynoglossum microglochin Cynoglossum microglochin Smallbristle hound's tongue Photo: CC BY-SA, Dinesh Valke from Thane, IndiaCynoglossum montanum Cynoglossum montanum Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Emanuele SantarelliCynoglossum officinale Cynoglossum officinale Hound's-tongue Photo: CC BY, Daughter DadCynoglossum zeylanicum Cynoglossum zeylanicum Ceylon hound's tongue Photo: CC BY, 如此甚好

Names & registers

Also known as Rindera columnae; Cynoglossum columnae var. dolopicum; Mattia columnae. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Cynoglossum cheirifolium Sieber and Cynoglossum cheirifolium Sieber ex Nyman is an older name of this species, not Cynoglossum cheirifolium, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidata

The record

Family
Boraginaceae
Described by
Ten.
Native to
Albania, Greece, Italy +5
Wild records
637 in range · 416 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 2026-10-22GBIF's key 4064507 is Cynoglossum columnae Biv.; Kew accepts Cynoglossum columnae Ten., and the name is cited as Kew accepts it; its synonyms and common names are read from GBIF's Cynoglossum columnae Ten. (8024799), which GBIF files under Rindera columnae (Ten.) Roem. & Schult. (4059926) too
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-225 read from GBIF's Cynoglossum columnae Ten. (8024799), which GBIF files under Rindera columnae (Ten.) Roem. & Schult. (4059926)
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 460 records of GBIF's key 4059926, Rindera columnae (Ten.) Roem. & Schult. (Kew's file holds it as Rindera columnae (Ten.) Roem. & Schult. (synonym under Cynoglossum columnae Ten.)): GBIF occurrence search API
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 44.00_15.625, lapse-corrected -161 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
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 2026-10-22read from the page's key and its other keys: 2 from GBIF's key 4059926
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 27 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…