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Inula racemosa; photograph (c) Thomas Davis-Moore, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Thomas Davis-Moore, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-23

Inula racemosa Hook.f.

Himalayan elecampane; Indian elecampane

Asteraceae · Afghanistan, China South-Central +6

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Inula racemosa Hook.f.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Hook.fil.

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Inula racemosa, photograph (c) Thomas Davis-Moore, some rights reserved (CC BY)Inula racemosa, photograph (c) Thomas Davis-Moore, some rights reserved (CC BY)Inula racemosa, photograph (c) Thomas Davis-Moore, some rights reserved (CC BY)Inula racemosa, photograph (c) Tom Norton, some rights reserved (CC BY)Inula racemosa, photograph (c) Tom Norton, some rights reserved (CC BY)Inula racemosa, photograph (c) Tom Norton, some rights reserved (CC BY) 102 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-22.4°C
Record low -28.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
18°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,123mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
18–46DLI
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 May and July, with nights below freezing; no growing season read. 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

Inula racemosa is an Asian plant in the daisy family native to the temperate and alpine western Himalayas of Xinjiang, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan. Seeds are positive photoblastic thus require light for germination or show surface germination

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Inula racemosa", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Inula

Inula is a genus of about 80 species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, native to Europe, Asia and Africa.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season and no growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (922 mm of 1,230 mm) falls in December to May and July, the cooler part of the year, but the mean nightly low is below freezing in February, March, April, May, June and January, so the rule reads no growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January and June to November.

Rain

1,230 mm in the median year at the habitat, 922 mm of it December to May and July. Wettest month March at 228 mm, driest month September at 46 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,029 mm to 2,224 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,123 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,230 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: 18 to 46 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 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -22.4 °C, the absolute minimum -28.2 °C, 8,457 frost nights in 44 years, 192.2 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 25.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -17.0 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -18.8 °C to -15.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 18.4 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -22.4 °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: 48 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 -149 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 Inula racemosa through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 18 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -17.0 °C; 1,230 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°frost25.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-28.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 18–46RH 48–62%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 °C-8 / -11–-5-6 / -9–-3-1 / -4–24 / 1–810 / 7–1415 / 15–1818 / 18–1918 / 17–1915 / 14–168 / 5–101 / -4–4-5 / -9–-2
Night °C-17 / -19–-15-15 / -17–-14-11 / -13–-9-7 / -9–-5-2 / -4–03 / 2–58 / 8–88 / 7–83 / 3–4-6 / -7–-4-12 / -14–-9-15 / -17–-13
Rain mm97 / 94–156144 / 120–216228 / 162–276178 / 145–203104 / 102–13871 / 46–17389 / 53–38968 / 41–28646 / 44–15061 / 45–8262 / 43–6682 / 64–114
DLI20 / 16–2325 / 22–2932 / 31–3741 / 40–4645 / 45–5046 / 45–5039 / 37–4635 / 34–4234 / 32–3828 / 25–3222 / 18–2518 / 14–20
RH %53 / 50–5355 / 53–5555 / 53–5553 / 52–5452 / 52–5456 / 51–5662 / 52–6562 / 54–6656 / 51–5851 / 50–5148 / 46–5050 / 48–52
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 1107:5094 (34.625, 74.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -28.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -22.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 25.8 °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 3 distinct grid cells holding 3 of the 3 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1107:5094 (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 34.50_75.000, lapse-corrected -149 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 3230 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.
NativeAfghanistan, China South-Central, China North-Central, Tibet, Xinjiang, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya · introduced: Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, Hainan, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, Qinghai, India, Laos, Vietnam, Ontario, Québec, Washington, Illinois, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont · 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 marker34.645, 74.703 · in the densest population, 21 records (31% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 67 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 15 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3313 km away. 646 records outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 64 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 67 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Inula racemosa, photograph 1did not loadInula racemosa, photograph 2did not loadInula racemosa, photograph 3did not loadInula racemosa, photograph 4did not loadInula racemosa, photograph 5did not loadInula racemosa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Thomas Davis-Moore, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Tom Norton, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Sambucus wightiana Kashmir Elder Filipendula vestita Filipendula vestita Rosaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Dinesh ValkeNepeta clarkei Nepeta clarkei Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Epibase Angelica glauca Smooth angelica Androsace armeniaca Primulaceae Adonis turkestanica Adonis turkestanica Ranunculaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Inula 11 in the reference

Inula acaulis Inula acaulis Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizInula candida Inula candida Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Daniel CahenInula grandis Inula grandis Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Dr. Alexey YakovlevInula helenium Inula helenium Elecampane Photo: CC BY, Елена ПатерикинаInula hookeri Inula hookeri Hooker's fleabane Photo: CC BY, scottvanceInula japonica Inula japonica Oriental yellowhead Photo: CC BY, Young Jun LeeInula macrocephala Inula macrocephala Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizInula magnifica Inula magnifica Giant Fleabane Photo: CC BY, Maria KohanovskayaInula rhizocephala Inula rhizocephala Asteraceae Photo: CC0, author not statedInula royleana Inula royleana Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizInula thapsoides Inula thapsoides Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Maria Kohanovskaya

Names & registers

Also known as Helenium racemosum. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Inula helenium Hook.fil. & Thomson is an older name of this species, not Inula helenium, a species of the reference; Inula royleana C.B.Clarke is an older name of this species, not Inula royleana, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
Hook.f.
Native to
Afghanistan, China South-Central, China North-Central +5
Wild records
67 in range · 15 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 2026-10-22GBIF's key 4933624 is Inula racemosa Hook.fil.; the page links Kew's Inula racemosa Hook.f., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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; 20 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (10 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 9 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 34.50_75.000, lapse-corrected -149 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 36 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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