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Gossypium sturtianum; photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-22

Gossypium sturtianum (R.Br.) J.H.Willis

Sturt's desert rose; Darling River rose; Cotton rosebush

Malvaceae · New South Wales, Northern Territory +4

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Gossypium sturtianum, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Gossypium sturtianum, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Gossypium sturtianum, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Gossypium sturtianum, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Gossypium sturtianum, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Gossypium sturtianum, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY) 57 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
1.8°C
Record low -0.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
35°C
Jan at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
325mm
5 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
24–49DLI
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 summers: the rain comes May to September and November (November to March and May at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Gossypium sturtianum, or Sturt's desert rose, is a woody shrub, closely related to cultivated cotton, found in most mainland states of Australia and the Northern Territory. It is also known as the Darling River rose, cotton rosebush and Australian cotton.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Gossypium sturtianum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Gossypium

Gossypium is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Gossypieae of the mallow family, Malvaceae, from which cotton is harvested. It is native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Old and New Worlds. There are about 50 Gossypium species, making it the largest genus in the tribe Gossypieae, and new species continue to be discovered. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (225 mm of 309 mm) falls in November to March and May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.5 °C against a yearly mean of 21.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to September and November.

Rain

309 mm in the median year at the habitat, 225 mm of it November to March and May. Wettest month January at 48 mm, driest month August at 7 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 217 mm to 607 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 325 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 309 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: 24 to 49 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 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 1.8 °C, the absolute minimum -0.6 °C, 4 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 6.1 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 4.8 °C to 10.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 35.2 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.8 °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: 41 to 51% 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 -8 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 Gossypium sturtianum through the yearWarmest month January, mean daily high 35 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 6.1 °C; 309 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.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost43.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-0.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 24–49RH 41–51%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 465 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 °C35 / 32–3734 / 31–3632 / 28–3428 / 23–3122 / 18–2618 / 15–2318 / 14–2322 / 17–2627 / 21–3030 / 24–3433 / 27–3634 / 30–37
Night °C23 / 19–2522 / 19–2519 / 16–2315 / 12–2011 / 9–157 / 6–116 / 5–108 / 6–1313 / 9–1716 / 12–2019 / 15–2322 / 17–24
Rain mm48 / 20–9744 / 22–9935 / 16–5218 / 11–3620 / 13–3915 / 7–3814 / 7–337 / 3–2810 / 6–3120 / 15–3934 / 20–6044 / 22–79
DLI49 / 44–5245 / 41–4741 / 38–4234 / 30–3728 / 22–3124 / 18–2826 / 19–3032 / 25–3539 / 35–4246 / 42–4648 / 45–4948 / 46–51
RH %43 / 41–5344 / 43–5544 / 42–5345 / 43–5348 / 46–5551 / 48–5849 / 45–5744 / 41–5341 / 39–5041 / 39–5042 / 40–5143 / 41–52
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 465 grid cells holding the 730 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 2399:6391 (-29.975, 139.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.6 °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 465 distinct grid cells holding 730 of the 730 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2399:6391 (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 -30.00_139.375, lapse-corrected -8 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 189 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, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia · 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-23.639, 132.986 · in the densest population, 787 records (70% of those in range)
Kew's description“desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1119 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 730 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1015 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 389 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 1119 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Gossypium sturtianum, photograph 1did not loadGossypium sturtianum, photograph 2did not loadGossypium sturtianum, photograph 3did not loadGossypium sturtianum, photograph 4did not loadGossypium sturtianum, photograph 5did not loadGossypium sturtianum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

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

Pandorea doratoxylon Pandorea doratoxylon Spearbush Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandIndigofera leucotricha Indigofera leucotricha Silver indigo Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandEucalyptus gillenii Eucalyptus gillenii Mallee Red Gum Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandCommersonia magniflora Commersonia magniflora Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, maxarkXanthorrhoea thorntonii Xanthorrhoea thorntonii Desert Grass-tree Photo: CC BY, maxarkEucalyptus lucens Eucalyptus lucens Shiny-leaved Mallee Photo: CC BY, Michael Hains

Other Gossypium 11 in the reference

Gossypium anomalum Gossypium anomalum African Wild Cotton Photo: CC0, author not statedGossypium arboreum Gossypium arboreum Tree cotton Photo: CC BY-SA, Ankit PathakGossypium barbadense Gossypium barbadense Creole cotton Photo: CC BY, Barry StewartGossypium darwinii Gossypium darwinii Darwin's Cotton Photo: CC0, author not statedGossypium harknessii Gossypium harknessii San Marcos Hibiscus Photo: CC BY, Abraham Sánchez RomeroGossypium herbaceum Gossypium herbaceum Levant cotton Photo: CC BY-SA, Rebecca Ryen-StolsGossypium hirsutum Gossypium hirsutum Cotton Photo: CC0, author not statedGossypium klotzschianum Gossypium klotzschianum Galapagos Cotton Photo: CC BY, Rachel AllinghamGossypium raimondii Gossypium raimondii Malvaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizGossypium thurberi Gossypium thurberi Wild cotton Photo: CC BY, John ThomlinsonGossypium tomentosum Gossypium tomentosum Hawaiian cotton Photo: CC BY, Thomas Irvine

Names & registers

Also known as Cienfuegosia gossypioides; Gossypium australiense; Gossypium gossypioides; Gossypium sturtii; Hibiscus gossypiodes and 2 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
(R.Br.) J.H.Willis
Native to
New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland +3
Wild records
1119 in range · 1015 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; 18 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (16 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -30.00_139.375, lapse-corrected -8 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 2026-10-22
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 32 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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