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Hamamelis ovalis; photograph (c) Laura Clark, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Laura Clark, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2024-01-20

Hamamelis ovalis S.W.Leonard

Bigleaf witch-hazel

Hamamelidaceae · Alabama, Mississippi

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Hamamelis ovalis, photograph (c) Laura Clark, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hamamelis ovalis, photograph (c) Reid Hardin, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hamamelis ovalis, photograph (c) Reid Hardin, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hamamelis ovalis, photograph (c) Reid Hardin, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hamamelis ovalis, photograph (c) Reid Hardin, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hamamelis ovalis, photograph (c) Reid Hardin, some rights reserved (CC BY) 39 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-5.6°C
Record low -14.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
32°C
Jun, Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,575mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
17–40DLI
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.

From few records: 3 records in 3 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Hamamelis ovalis (known commonly as big-leaf witch-hazel, Leonard's witch-hazel, running witch-hazel, and southern witch-hazel) is a species of shrubby witch-hazel mostly found in the southeastern United States. It was first discovered in 2004, and subsequently described in 2005. Its leaves resemble those of the hazelnut, and its flowers can range from red to maroon, mostly open from December till February. It is one of three species in the genus Hamamelis that lives in North America.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Hamamelis ovalis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,141 mm of 1,562 mm) takes 8 months, November to March and May to July. Mean temperature moves 17.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to January and May to September.

Rain

1,562 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,141 mm of it November to March and May to July. Wettest months (2 at 158 mm), driest month October at 84 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,537 mm to 1,600 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,575 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,562 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: 17 to 40 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 -5.6 °C, the absolute minimum -14.1 °C, 1,382 frost nights in 44 years, 31.4 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 5.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 5.1 °C to 5.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 32.4 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.6 °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: 56 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 +36 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 3 records in 3 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Hamamelis ovalis through the yearWarmest months June, July and August, mean daily high 32 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 5.1 °C; 1,562 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°frost38.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-14.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 17–40RH 56–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 3 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 / 15–1517 / 17–1721 / 21–2125 / 24–2529 / 29–2932 / 31–3232 / 32–3332 / 32–3230 / 30–3025 / 25–2620 / 20–2016 / 16–16
Night °C5 / 5–57 / 7–710 / 10–1013 / 13–1418 / 18–1822 / 21–2223 / 23–2323 / 23–2320 / 20–2015 / 15–1510 / 10–116 / 6–7
Rain mm145 / 141–146148 / 144–151158 / 152–161112 / 110–118122 / 120–122136 / 132–142158 / 156–161117 / 115–133108 / 106–11784 / 82–90125 / 117–129149 / 145–154
DLI18 / 18–1823 / 23–2330 / 30–3037 / 37–3740 / 40–4039383531 / 31–3126 / 26–2620 / 20–2017 / 17–17
RH %58 / 58–5957 / 57–5857 / 56–5857 / 57–5858 / 58–5960 / 60–6162 / 62–6362 / 62–6359 / 58–6056 / 56–5757 / 57–5858 / 58–59
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 3 grid cells holding the 3 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 1167:1844 (31.625, -87.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -14.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.9 °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 3 distinct grid cells holding 3 of the 3 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1167:1844 (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 31.50_-87.500, lapse-corrected +36 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 112 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.
NativeAlabama, Mississippi · 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 marker30.508, -86.914 · in the densest population, 8 records (67% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 12 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 3 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 4 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 122 km away. 22 records outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 9 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 12 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Hamamelis ovalis, photograph 1did not loadHamamelis ovalis, photograph 2did not loadHamamelis ovalis, photograph 3did not loadHamamelis ovalis, photograph 4did not loadHamamelis ovalis, photograph 5did not loadHamamelis ovalis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Laura Clark, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Reid Hardin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).

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

Eupatorium semiserratum Eupatorium semiserratum Smallflower thoroughwort Photo: CC BY, Anne ParkerIllicium floridanum Illicium floridanum Florida anise-tree Photo: CC BY, Rob JohnAmsonia rigida Amsonia rigida Pond bluestar Photo: CC BY, Joseph AubertTetragonotheca helianthoides Tetragonotheca helianthoides Pineland nerveray Photo: CC BY, José GarridoQuercus austrina Quercus austrina Bastard white oak Photo: CC BY, Brynn FrickeHalesia diptera Halesia diptera Two-winged Silverbell Photo: CC BY, carter

Other Hamamelis 4 in the reference

Hamamelis japonica Hamamelis japonica Japanese witch-hazel Photo: CC BY, Timur KalininskyHamamelis mollis Hamamelis mollis Chinese witch-hazel Photo: CC BY, 王天明Hamamelis vernalis Hamamelis vernalis Ozark witch-hazel Photo: CC BY, diana schwartzHamamelis virginiana Hamamelis virginiana Witch-hazel Photo: CC BY, Declan McCabe

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Hamamelidaceae
Described by
S.W.Leonard
Native to
Alabama, Mississippi
Wild records
12 in range · 4 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 31.50_-87.500, lapse-corrected +36 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 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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