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Epacris petrophila; photograph Hilary Rose Dawson, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYHilary Rose Dawson, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Epacris petrophila Hook.f.

Snow Heath

Ericaceae · New South Wales, Tasmania +1

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Epacris petrophila Hook.f.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Hook.fil.

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Epacris petrophila, photograph Hilary Rose Dawson, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFEpacris petrophila, photograph Hilary Rose Dawson, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFEpacris petrophila, photograph Nina Kerr, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFEpacris petrophila, photograph Nina Kerr, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFEpacris petrophila, photograph Petra Holland, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFEpacris petrophila, photograph Petra Holland, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 12 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-4.9°C
Record low -12.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
19°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,184mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
11–44DLI
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

Epacris petrophila, commonly known as snow heath, is a species of flowering plant from the heath family, Ericaceae, and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is an erect, bushy, sometimes low-lying shrub with egg-shaped to elliptic leaves and tube-shaped white flowers in small clusters on the ends of branches.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Epacris petrophila", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (891 mm of 1,185 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 11.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Rain

1,185 mm in the median year at the habitat, 891 mm of it May to December. Wettest month August at 138 mm, driest month March at 69 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 821 mm to 1,605 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,184 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,185 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 44 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 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -4.9 °C, the absolute minimum -12.0 °C, 5,685 frost nights in 44 years, 129.2 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 22.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -1.4 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range -4.6 °C to 1.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 19.1 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.9 °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: 58 to 68% 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 +300 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Epacris petrophila through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 19 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low -1.4 °C; 1,185 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, southern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost22.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-12.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 11–44RH 58–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 146 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 °C19 / 16–2319 / 16–2216 / 13–2012 / 10–168 / 7–125 / 3–94 / 2–85 / 3–98 / 6–1211 / 9–1514 / 12–1816 / 14–21
Night °C8 / 6–118 / 6–116 / 5–94 / 2–72 / -1–40 / -3–2-1 / -5–1-1 / -4–21 / -2–32 / 0–54 / 3–86 / 4–9
Rain mm74 / 59–9870 / 47–8969 / 53–9681 / 57–10789 / 57–125121 / 73–169128 / 68–175138 / 70–195117 / 73–163106 / 76–155101 / 70–13791 / 67–126
DLI44 / 42–4839 / 37–4232 / 28–3523 / 18–2515 / 12–1711 / 9–1413 / 10–1618 / 15–2126 / 22–3035 / 32–3840 / 39–4444 / 42–48
RH %58 / 55–6258 / 56–6260 / 57–6462 / 60–6665 / 62–6967 / 63–7068 / 64–7166 / 62–6964 / 60–6761 / 58–6559 / 58–6358 / 56–62
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 146 grid cells holding the 421 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 2637:6530 (-41.875, 146.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -12.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 22.1 °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 146 distinct grid cells holding 421 of the 421 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2637:6530 (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 -42.00_146.250, lapse-corrected +300 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1148 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.
NativeNew South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria · 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 marker-36.432, 148.308 · in the densest population, 283 records (62% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 454 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 421 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 406 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 33 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 454 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Epacris petrophila, photograph 1did not loadEpacris petrophila, photograph 2did not loadEpacris petrophila, photograph 3did not loadEpacris petrophila, photograph 4did not loadEpacris petrophila, photograph 5did not loadEpacris petrophila, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Hilary Rose Dawson, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Nina Kerr, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Petra Holland, 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.

Baeckea gunniana Baeckea gunniana Alpine Baeckea Photo: CC0, author not statedGrevillea australis Grevillea australis Alpine grevillea Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandCelmisia asteliifolia Celmisia asteliifolia Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, naturewatchwidowGeranium brevicaule Geranium brevicaule Alpine Crane's Bill Photo: CC BY, Felix CollinsAciphylla glacialis Aciphylla glacialis Mountain celery Photo: CC BY, Eamonn CulhaneRichea continentis Richea continentis Ericaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Canley

Other Epacris 9 in the reference

Epacris gunnii Epacris gunnii Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, Shelomi DoyleEpacris impressa Epacris impressa Common-heath Photo: CC0, author not statedEpacris lanuginosa Epacris lanuginosa Woolly-style heath Photo: CC0, author not statedEpacris longiflora Epacris longiflora Fuchsia-heath Photo: CC BY-SA, James K. DouchEpacris microphylla Epacris microphylla Coral Heath Photo: CC BY, ian_mcallanEpacris paludosa Epacris paludosa Swamp-heath Photo: CC BY, Kiri BeeEpacris pulchella Epacris pulchella Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, Kevin JägerEpacris purpurascens Epacris purpurascens Ericaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, James K. DouchEpacris serpyllifolia Epacris serpyllifolia Alpine heath Photo: CC BY, naturewatchwidow

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Ericaceae
Described by
Hook.f.
Native to
New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria
Wild records
454 in range · 406 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 5642683 is Epacris petrophila Hook.fil.; the page links Kew's Epacris petrophila Hook.f., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -42.00_146.250, lapse-corrected +300 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 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 2026-10-22
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 20 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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