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Heuchera pulchella; photograph (c) Sam Kieschnick, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Sam Kieschnick, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2017-09-28

Heuchera pulchella Wooton & Standl.

Sandia Mountain alumroot

Saxifragaceae · New Mexico · listed by its genus as a temperate garden plant

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Heuchera pulchella, photograph (c) Anthony Sabella, some rights reserved (CC BY)Heuchera pulchella, photograph (c) Tom Kennedy, some rights reserved (CC BY)Heuchera pulchella, photograph (c) Sam Kieschnick, some rights reserved (CC BY)Heuchera pulchella, photograph (c) Sam Kieschnick, some rights reserved (CC BY) 5 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-14.1°C
Record low -24.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
457mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–52DLI
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 March to April, July to October and December, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 21 records in 4 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Heuchera pulchella, the Sandia Mountain alumroot or Sandia Mountain coral-bells, is a plant species endemic to central New Mexico, mostly in the Manzano and Sandia Mountains, but cultivated as an ornamental elsewhere. It grows in canyons and on steep mountain slopes in Torrance, Bernalillo, and Sandoval Counties at elevations of 2700–3200 m.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Heuchera pulchella", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Heuchera

Heuchera is a genus of largely evergreen perennial plants in the family Saxifragaceae. All species are native to North America except for Heuchera sichotensis, native to the Russian Far East. Common names include alumroot and coral bells.

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

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant, listed under the genus Heuchera in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial or subshrub”, “subalpine or subarctic”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (330 mm of 458 mm) falls in March to April, July to October and December, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 9.2 °C against a yearly mean of 7.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to April, June and September to October.

Rain

458 mm in the median year at the habitat, 330 mm of it March to April, July to October and December. Wettest month August at 76 mm, driest months (2 at 24 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 424 mm to 482 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 457 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 458 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: 20 to 52 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 -14.1 °C, the absolute minimum -24.5 °C, 7,724 frost nights in 44 years, 175.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -9.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -10.4 °C to -7.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.8 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -14.1 °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: 40 to 53% 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 +449 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.

Group. Listed under the genus Heuchera in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial or subshrub”, “subalpine or subarctic”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 21 records in 4 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 Heuchera pulchella through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -9.2 °C; 458 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.-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost32.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-24.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 20–52RH 40–53%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 4 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 °C2 / 1–35 / 4–610 / 9–1115 / 14–1620 / 19–2225 / 24–2626 / 25–2724 / 23–2521 / 20–2215 / 14–168 / 7–92 / 1–3
Night °C-9 / -10–-8-7 / -9–-6-4 / -5–-30 / -1–15 / 4–710 / 9–1113 / 11–1412 / 10–138 / 7–92 / 1–3-4 / -5–-3-9 / -10–-8
Rain mm24 / 22–2524 / 23–2535 / 34–3729 / 27–3025 / 23–2729 / 27–3170 / 63–7476 / 70–8145 / 43–4845 / 43–4726 / 24–2730 / 28–31
DLI23 / 21–2429 / 27–3037 / 36–3845 / 45–4650 / 49–5052 / 51–5247 / 47–4743 / 42–4339 / 38–3931 / 29–3224 / 22–2520 / 18–21
RH %50 / 49–504947 / 46–4742 / 41–4241 / 40–4140 / 40–4149 / 48–4953 / 52–5349 / 48–49474749 / 48–50
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 4 grid cells holding the 21 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 1095:1470 (35.225, -106.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -24.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -14.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.6 °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 4 distinct grid cells holding 21 of the 21 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1095:1470 (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 35.00_-106.250, lapse-corrected +449 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2419 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 Mexico · 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 marker35.208, -106.447 · in the densest population, 22 records (100% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or subshrub” · “subalpine or subarctic” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 22 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 21 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 4 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stays 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 22 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Heuchera pulchella, photograph 1did not loadHeuchera pulchella, photograph 2did not loadHeuchera pulchella, photograph 3did not loadHeuchera pulchella, photograph 4did not load

Photographs: (c) Anthony Sabella, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Tom Kennedy, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Sam Kieschnick, 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.

Townsendia eximia Townsendia eximia Tall Townsend daisy Photo: CC0, author not statedHymenothrix dissecta Hymenothrix dissecta Ragleaf bahia Photo: CC BY-SA, lejones417Geranium caespitosum Geranium caespitosum Pineywoods geranium Photo: CC0, author not statedCeanothus fendleri Ceanothus fendleri Fendler buckbrush Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerSidalcea neomexicana Sidalcea neomexicana New Mexico checker Photo: CC0, author not statedVerbena macdougalii Verbena macdougalii Macdougal's vervain Photo: CC BY, Parker James Lloyd

Other Heuchera 26 in the reference

Heuchera alba Heuchera alba White alumroot Photo: CC BY, Daniel BeeversHeuchera americana Heuchera americana American alumroot Photo: CC BY, John MichaelHeuchera bracteata Heuchera bracteata Rocky Mountain alumroot Photo: CC0, author not statedHeuchera caroliniana Heuchera caroliniana Carolina alumroot Photo: CC BY, Alison NorthupHeuchera chlorantha Heuchera chlorantha Meadow alumroot Photo: CC BY, jonsenseHeuchera cylindrica Heuchera cylindrica Mat alumroot Photo: CC BY, Daughter DadHeuchera elegans Heuchera elegans Urn-flowered Alumroot Photo: CC0, author not statedHeuchera glabra Heuchera glabra Alpine alumroot Photo: CC BY, Shaan AroesteHeuchera grossulariifolia Heuchera grossulariifolia Gooseberry-leaf alumroot Photo: CC BY, Kieran HanrahanHeuchera hallii Heuchera hallii Front Range alumroot Photo: CC BY-SA, Brian FinzelHeuchera longiflora Heuchera longiflora Long-flowered alum-root Photo: CC BY, Shelby Lyn SandersHeuchera longipetala Heuchera longipetala Saxifragaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Leticia Jiménez Hernández all 27 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Saxifragaceae
Described by
Wooton & Standl.
Native to
New Mexico
Wild records
22 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; 3 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (3 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 35.00_-106.250, lapse-corrected +449 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
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 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 1 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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