Species
+

Helleborus orientalis Lam.

Lenten Rose, Lenten-Rose, lenten-rose

Climate known 44 photographs Temperate garden plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

Helleborus orientalis, or the Lenten rose, is a perennial flowering plant and species of hellebore in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, native to Greece and Turkey.

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

About the genus · Helleborus

Commonly known as hellebores, the Eurasian genus Helleborus consists of approximately 20 species of herbaceous or evergreen perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae, within which it gave its name to the tribe of Helleboreae. Many hellebore species are poisonous.

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

Family
Ranunculaceae
Described by
Lam.
Native to
Greece, Turkey-in-Europe, North Caucasus +2
Wild records
494 in range· 190 open

At a glance

Warmest month
25°C
Aug, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1468mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Dec 142 mm (CHELSA)
Light
9–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Helleborus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and May to July in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1468 mm a year, wettest December at 142 mm, driest February at 100 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -10.5 °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.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Helleborus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and May to July in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1037 mm of 1468 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and May to July. Mean temperature moves 20.9 °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 March to July.

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 1468 mm a year, wettest December at 142 mm, driest February at 100 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1468 mm a year at the habitat, 1037 mm of it September to January and May to July. Wettest month December at 142 mm, driest February at 100 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 777 mm to 2434 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: 9 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 40 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 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

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 -10.5 °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 -10.5 °C, the absolute minimum -18.8 °C, about 87 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -3.3 °C in February (across the envelope cells -8.3 °C to 2.6 °C), warmest day 25.0 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -10.5 °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: 60 to 63% 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 4 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Aug; mean night from -3 °C in Feb to 17 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 1468 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 240 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -18.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.2 °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°frost36.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-18.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 9–40RH 60–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 240 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 °C4 / 1–85 / 1–88 / 5–1014 / 11–1618 / 15–2022 / 19–2425 / 21–2725 / 21–2721 / 18–2316 / 13–1910 / 7–145 / 2–10
Night °C-3 / -9–3-3 / -8–3-0 / -5–45 / 0–89 / 5–1314 / 9–1717 / 12–2017 / 12–2113 / 8–188 / 3–132 / -3–9-1 / -7–5
Rain mm123 / 38–251100 / 42–201105 / 58–195111 / 61–172130 / 63–177130 / 65–186122 / 54–170115 / 51–156125 / 55–190126 / 65–234139 / 62–287142 / 47–272
DLI11 / 9–1417 / 15–2124 / 22–2831 / 29–3336 / 34–3940 / 36–4240 / 36–4236 / 33–3827 / 26–2919 / 17–2112 / 11–159 / 8–12
RH %61 / 59–6561 / 59–6460 / 59–6360 / 59–6262 / 59–6363 / 59–6462 / 57–6661 / 57–6561 / 59–6361 / 59–6361 / 58–6461 / 58–65

Each figure is the median across the 240 grid cells holding the 485 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 950:4448 (42.475, 42.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -18.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -10.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.2 °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 240 distinct grid cells holding the 485 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 950:4448 (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 42.50_42.500, lapse-corrected +14 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 713 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.
NativeGreece, Turkey-in-Europe, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Turkey· introduced: Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, France
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker44.098, 39.79 · in the densest population, 343 records (69% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 494 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 190 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 33 km away. 930 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 9 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 494 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Helleborus orientalisHelleborus orientalisHelleborus orientalisHelleborus orientalisHelleborus orientalisHelleborus orientalisHelleborus orientalisHelleborus orientalis

Photographs: (c) Анна Митрошенкова, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Rebecca Turner, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Илья Руденко, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Наталья Пикалова, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist 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 Helleborus orientalis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Bufadienolide and Spirostanol Glycosides from the Rhizomes of Helleborus orientalis
Kazuki Watanabe, Yoshihiro Mimaki, Hiroshi Sakagami, Yutaka Sashida (2003) · Journal of Natural Products
Physiological and biochemical changes associated with flower development and senescence in so far unexplored Helleborus orientalis Lam. cv. Olympicus
Waseem Shahri, Inayatullah Tahir, Sheikh Tajamul Islam, Mushtaq A. Bhat (2011) · Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants
Ethnoveterinary medicine in Turkey: a comprehensive review
Zeynep Büşra ERARSLAN, Şükran Kültür (2019) · TURKISH JOURNAL OF VETERINARY AND ANIMAL SCIENCES
Novel Polyoxygenated Spirostanol Glycosides from the Rhizomes of Helleborus orientalis
Yoshihiro Mimaki, Kazuki Watanabe, Chiseko Sakuma, Hiroshi Sakagami (2003) · Helvetica Chimica Acta
Four New Steroidal Saponins from the Rhizomes of Helleborus orientalis
Yoshihiro Mimaki, Kazuki Watanabe, Hiroshi Sakagami (2005) · Heterocycles
Rhizocola hellebori gen. nov., sp. nov., an actinomycete of the family Micromonosporaceae containing 3,4-dihydroxydiaminopimelic acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan
Atsuko Matsumoto, Y. Kawaguchi, Takuji Nakashima, Masato Iwatsuki (2014) · INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC AND EVOLUTIONARY MICROBIOLOGY
A Novel Polyoxygenated Spirostanol Trisdesmoside from the Rhizomes of Helleborus orientalis
Kazuki Watanabe, Yoshihiro Mimaki, Chiseko Sakuma, Yutaka Sashida (2002) · Chemistry Letters
A flat petal as ancestral state for Ranunculaceae
Pauline Delpeuch, Florian Jabbour, Catherine Damerval, Jürg Schönenberger (2022) · Frontiers in Plant Science
Furostanol glycosides from the rhizomes of Helleborus orientalis
Yoshihiro Mimaki, Yukiko Matsuo, Kazuki Watanabe, Hiroshi Sakagami (2010) · Journal of Natural Medicines
Total Phenolics, Flavonoids Contents, Antioxidant Activity and DNA Protective Effect of Lenten Rose (Helleborus orientalis)
Meral Öztürk, İbrahim Bulduk, Safiye Elif Korcan, Recep Liman (2019) · Asian Journal of Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology
A furostanol saponin and phytoecdysteroid from roots of Helleborus orientalis
Sebahat Akin, Hüseyin Anıl (2007) · Chemistry of Natural Compounds

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 Helleborus 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; 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 63 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.