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Erysimum ammophilum; photograph (c) lazarus, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) lazarus, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2022-05-28

Erysimum ammophilum A.Heller

San Francisco wallflower; Sand-loving Wallflower; Coast wallflower

Brassicaceae · California

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Erysimum ammophilum, photograph (c) Eric Knight, some rights reserved (CC BY)Erysimum ammophilum, photograph (c) Eric Knight, some rights reserved (CC BY)Erysimum ammophilum, photograph (c) Eric Knight, some rights reserved (CC BY)Erysimum ammophilum, photograph (c) Eric Knight, some rights reserved (CC BY)Erysimum ammophilum, photograph (c) Adam J. Searcy, some rights reserved (CC BY)Erysimum ammophilum, photograph (c) Adam J. Searcy, some rights reserved (CC BY) 37 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
6.1°C
Record low 0.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
21°C
Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
456mm
6 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
15–51DLI
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 December to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Erysimum ammophilum is a species of wallflower known by the common name coast wallflower.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Erysimum ammophilum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (327 mm of 461 mm) falls in December to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 11.5 °C against a yearly mean of 13.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Rain

461 mm in the median year at the habitat, 327 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 92 mm, driest month July at 1 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 288 mm to 511 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 456 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 461 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: 15 to 51 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 6.1 °C, the absolute minimum 0.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 8.7 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 7.0 °C to 11.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 21.2 °C in September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.1 °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: 60 to 66% 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 -113 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 Erysimum ammophilum through the yearWarmest months August and September, mean daily high 21 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 8.7 °C; 461 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.-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°30°frost27.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER0.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 15–51RH 60–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 15 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 °C15 / 14–1715 / 14–1816 / 14–1816 / 14–1917 / 14–2019 / 15–2220 / 17–2521 / 17–2621 / 18–2520 / 17–2317 / 16–2014 / 14–17
Night °C9 / 7–119 / 8–1210 / 8–1210 / 9–1210 / 10–1412 / 11–1513 / 12–1813 / 13–1913 / 13–1813 / 12–1611 / 9–149 / 7–12
Rain mm92 / 55–10585 / 62–9874 / 46–8235 / 22–3911 / 4–123 / 2–412 / 1–25 / 3–522 / 15–2555 / 28–6276 / 45–83
DLI17 / 17–2123 / 23–2632 / 31–3541 / 41–4447 / 47–4951 / 50–5150 / 50–5046 / 45–4738 / 38–3928 / 28–3119 / 19–2315 / 15–19
RH %61 / 59–6263 / 60–6364 / 62–6563 / 62–6664 / 63–7164 / 63–7466 / 64–7766 / 64–7865 / 63–7364 / 62–6661 / 60–6260 / 58–61
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 15 grid cells holding the 28 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 1067:1162 (36.625, -121.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.8 °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 15 distinct grid cells holding 28 of the 28 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1067:1162 (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 36.50_-121.875, lapse-corrected -113 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 6 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.
NativeCalifornia · 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 marker36.793, -121.922 · in the densest population, 192 records (74% of those in range)
Kew's description“biennial or subshrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 259 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 28 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 21 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8 km away. 231 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 259 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Erysimum ammophilum, photograph 1did not loadErysimum ammophilum, photograph 2did not loadErysimum ammophilum, photograph 3did not loadErysimum ammophilum, photograph 4did not loadErysimum ammophilum, photograph 5did not loadErysimum ammophilum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Eric Knight, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Adam J. Searcy, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Lupinus chamissonis Lupinus chamissonis Chamisso bush lupine Photo: CC BY, Annette HerzEricameria ericoides Ericameria ericoides California goldenbush Photo: CC BY, Andrea Villarreal RodríguezDudleya cespitosa Dudleya cespitosa Sand lettuce Photo: CC BY-SA, James C. DavisAstragalus nuttallii Astragalus nuttallii Nuttall's milkvetch Photo: CC BY, Lia KeenerCardionema ramosissima Cardionema ramosissima Sandcarpet Photo: CC BY, Humber AlbertoArctostaphylos rudis Arctostaphylos rudis Sand mesa manzanita Photo: CC BY, harrier

Other Erysimum 36 in the reference

Erysimum arbuscula Erysimum arbuscula Brassicaceae Photo: CC BY, Vítor JorgeErysimum asperum Erysimum asperum Western wallflower Photo: CC BY, Tom NortonErysimum bicolor Erysimum bicolor Brassicaceae Photo: CC BY, Vítor JorgeErysimum caboverdeanum Erysimum caboverdeanum Cape Verde Wallflower Photo: CC BY-SA, James SteakleyErysimum capitatum Erysimum capitatum Western wallflower Photo: CC BY, DenaErysimum cheiranthoides Erysimum cheiranthoides Treacle mustard Photo: CC BY, Илья РуденкоErysimum × cheiri Erysimum × cheiri Wallflower Photo: CC0, author not statedErysimum concinnum Erysimum concinnum Curly wallflower Photo: CC0, author not statedErysimum crepidifolium Erysimum crepidifolium Brassicaceae Photo: CC BY, Pavel KaclErysimum cuspidatum Erysimum cuspidatum Brassicaceae Photo: CC BY, Наталья ПикаловаErysimum diffusum Erysimum diffusum Diffuse wallflower Photo: CC BY, Christoph MoningErysimum franciscanum Erysimum franciscanum San Francisco wallflower Photo: CC BY, Alexander Wentworth all 37 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Cheiranthus ammophilus; Cheirinia ammophila. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Brassicaceae
Described by
A.Heller
Native to
California
Wild records
259 in range · 21 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 2026-10-22
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 36.50_-121.875, lapse-corrected -113 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
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 21 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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