Species
+

Epilobium ciliatum Raf.

American Willowherb, Fringed Willowherb, Glandular Willowherb, Northern Asian Willowherb

Climate known 94 photographs
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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

Epilobium ciliatum, known by the common names fringed willowherb, American willowherb, slender willow herb, and northern willow herb is a species of flowering plant in the willowherb family Onagraceae. This species is native to much of North America, southern South America, and East Asia. It is an introduced species in much of Eurasia and Australia.

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

About the genus · Epilobium

Epilobium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Onagraceae, containing about 197 species. The genus has a worldwide distribution. It is most prevalent in the subarctic, temperate and subantarctic regions, whereas in the subtropics and tropics Epilobium species are restricted to the cool montane biomes, such as the New Guinea Highlands.

Text from Wikipedia, “Epilobium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Onagraceae
Described by
Raf.
Native to
Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is. +74
Wild records
339 in range· 68 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Aug, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1100mm/yr
10 wet months · peak Nov 172 mm (CHELSA)
Light
7–44DLI
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: a winter growing season, October to March in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1100 mm a year, wettest November at 172 mm, driest July at 19 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 44 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -4.9 °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 Epilboium adenocaulon; Epilobium brevistylum Barb.Rodr.; Epilobium maximowitzii Hausskn., 1879.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to March in the northern hemisphere (October to March 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 (816 mm of 1100 mm) falls in October to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 7.4 °C against a yearly mean of 11.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

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 1100 mm a year, wettest November at 172 mm, driest July at 19 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1100 mm a year at the habitat, 816 mm of it October to March. Wettest month November at 172 mm, driest July at 19 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 334 mm to 2266 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: 7 to 44 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 44 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 5, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

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 -4.9 °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 -4.9 °C, the absolute minimum -15.9 °C, about 29 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 2.8 °C in December (across the envelope cells -4.3 °C to 8.3 °C), warmest day 24.4 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.9 °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: 59 to 64% 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 7 °C in Dec to 24 °C in Aug; mean night from 3 °C in Dec to 14 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 1100 mm of rain a year, most in Nov. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 265 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -15.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost30.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-15.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 7–44RH 59–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 265 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 °C8 / 2–1810 / 3–1812 / 6–1914 / 11–2018 / 13–2321 / 15–2624 / 16–2924 / 17–2921 / 16–2816 / 13–2411 / 7–207 / 2–17
Night °C3 / -6–83 / -5–95 / -2–106 / 3–119 / 6–1311 / 10–1513 / 12–1714 / 12–1812 / 10–179 / 6–146 / 1–113 / -4–8
Rain mm153 / 54–322115 / 58–251109 / 47–25179 / 24–16768 / 6–12350 / 2–10219 / 1–8623 / 1–8645 / 5–100101 / 17–189172 / 30–351166 / 45–370
DLI9 / 6–2114 / 12–2621 / 19–3530 / 28–4337 / 34–4841 / 36–5244 / 39–5139 / 34–4729 / 26–3918 / 14–3010 / 7–237 / 5–19
RH %64 / 56–6762 / 57–6562 / 57–6561 / 55–6460 / 55–6559 / 54–6659 / 53–6859 / 53–6961 / 53–6762 / 55–6564 / 56–6863 / 55–67

Each figure is the median across the 265 grid cells holding the 323 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 846:1153 (47.675, -122.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -15.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.0 °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 265 distinct grid cells holding the 323 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 846:1153 (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 47.50_-122.500, lapse-corrected -40 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 70 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.
NativeKamchatka, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Aleutian Is., Alaska, Greenland, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Labrador, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Guatemala, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile South, Falkland Is.· introduced: Denmark, Finland, Føroyar, Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Canary Is., Madeira, Altay, Buryatiya, Chita, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, West Siberia, Amur, Sakhalin, Kazakhstan, Manchuria, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Malaya, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, Antipodean Is., New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Hawaii
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker45.942, -122.885 · in the densest population, 100 records (29% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 339 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 68 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 223 km away. 485 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 16 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 339 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Epilobium ciliatumEpilobium ciliatumEpilobium ciliatumEpilobium ciliatumEpilobium ciliatumEpilobium ciliatumEpilobium ciliatumEpilobium ciliatum

Photographs: (c) psweet, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Brandon McCracken, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media 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 Epilobium ciliatum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Effects of Nutrient Level on Cost and Benefit of Apical Dominance in Epilobium ciliatum
D. L. Irwin, Lonnie W. Aarssen (1996) · The American Midland Naturalist
New Flora of the British Isles, third edition
Lars Fröberg (2010) · Systematic Biology
Chorological, ecological and taxonomic notes on the vascular flora of Hungary III
Gergely Király, Angéla Király (2018) · Botanikai Közlemények
Preliminary results of studies on the distribution of invasive alien vascular plant species occurring in semi-natural and natural habitats in NW Poland
Agnieszka Popiela, Andrzej Łysko, Zofia Sotek, K. Ziarnek (2015) · Biodiversity Research and Conservation
Chromosome numbers of some plants from the unglaciated central Yukon plateau, Canada
Gerald A. Mulligan, A. E. Porsild (1969) · Canadian Journal of Botany
Multiple Resistance Evolution in Bipyridylium-Resistant Epilobium ciliatum After Recurrent Selection
B. Khalil Tahmasebi, Ricardo Alcántara‐de la Cruz, Estéban Alcántara, Joel Torra (2018) · Frontiers in Plant Science
Comparison of premix glyphosate and 2,4-D formulation and direct tank mixture for control of Conyza canadensis and Epilobium ciliatum
Candelario Palma‐Bautista, Hugo E. Cruz-Hipólito, Ricardo Alcántara‐de la Cruz, José G. Vázquez-García (2021) · Environmental Pollution

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 Epilobium 1 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 search API
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: filled 2026-09-20
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 did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
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 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.