Species
+

Mespilus germanica L.

Medlar, common medlar, medlar

Climate known 7 photographs
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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

Mespilus germanica, known as the medlar or common medlar, is a large shrub or small tree in the rose family Rosaceae. When the genus Mespilus is included in the genus Crataegus, the correct name for this species is Crataegus germanica (L.) Kuntze.

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

About the genus · Mespilus

Mespilus, commonly called medlar, is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Rosaceae containing the single species Mespilus germanica of southwest Asia. It is also found in some countries in the Balkans, especially in Albanian, Macedonian and Bulgarian regions, and in Azerbaijan and Caucasian Georgia. A second proposed species, Mespilus canescens, discovered in North America in 1990, proved to be a hybrid between M. germanica and one or more species of hawthorn, and is properly known as × Crataemespilus canescens.

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

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Krym, Turkmenistan, North Caucasus +3
Wild records
10 in range· 1 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Aug, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
705mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 94 mm (CHELSA)
Light
9–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 705 mm a year, wettest June at 94 mm, driest January at 30 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -13.3 °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.

Also known as Crataegus germanica (L.) K.Koch; Crataegus germanica (L.) Kuntze; Crataegus mespilus Clairv.; Crataegus mespilus Clairv. ex Jess.; Mespilus abortiva Duhamel and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (518 mm of 705 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 16.3 °C against a yearly mean of 9.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to April.

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 705 mm a year, wettest June at 94 mm, driest January at 30 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

705 mm a year at the habitat, 518 mm of it April to October. Wettest month June at 94 mm, driest January at 30 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 494 mm to 1953 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 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 36 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 40).

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 -13.3 °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 -13.3 °C, the absolute minimum -29.7 °C, about 110 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -5.8 °C in February (across the envelope cells -7.2 °C to 1.9 °C), warmest day 25.9 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -13.3 °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: 61 to 65% 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 2 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Aug; mean night from -6 °C in Feb to 17 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 705 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 9 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -29.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost34.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-29.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 9–36RH 61–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 9 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 °C2 / 1–82 / 2–97 / 6–1113 / 12–1619 / 17–2023 / 20–2526 / 23–2726 / 23–2721 / 19–2415 / 14–208 / 7–153 / 2–10
Night °C-6 / -8–2-6 / -7–2-2 / -4–44 / 2–89 / 7–1314 / 11–1917 / 15–2217 / 14–2212 / 10–186 / 5–130 / -1–8-4 / -6–4
Rain mm30 / 21–16736 / 20–14041 / 29–15955 / 41–12584 / 59–13494 / 65–13980 / 55–14169 / 45–12665 / 40–16271 / 39–19149 / 34–19231 / 28–168
DLI10 / 10–1416 / 15–2023 / 21–2730 / 27–3334 / 33–3736 / 35–4036 / 36–3932 / 31–3524 / 22–2716 / 15–2011 / 10–139 / 8–12
RH %62 / 59–6664 / 60–6664 / 60–6661 / 60–6461 / 59–6462 / 58–6363 / 56–6463 / 57–6461 / 60–6864 / 59–6865 / 59–6762 / 59–67

Each figure is the median across the 9 grid cells holding the 10 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 916:4461 (44.175, 43.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -29.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -13.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.7 °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 9 distinct grid cells holding the 10 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 916:4461 (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 44.00_43.125, lapse-corrected -120 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 498 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.
NativeKrym, Turkmenistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Iran, Iraq· introduced: Great Britain, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Cyprus, Lebanon-Syria, Turkey, Washington, Ecuador
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker44.15, 43.05 · in the densest population, 7 records (70% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 10 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1 openly licensed one, which alone would put the marker 462 km away. 660 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. Under a dozen records: treat the map and the climate as indicative.
The map markerthe map marker: the centre of the tenth-degree cell nearest the middle (no openly licensed record lies in the population, so no record's coordinates are published) of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 10 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Mespilus germanicaMespilus germanicaMespilus germanicaMespilus germanicaMespilus germanicaMespilus germanica

Photographs: unknown, CC BY-SA, via GBIF (5); Andreas C. Lange, CC BY-SA, via GBIF.

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

Polyphenol Contents and Antioxidant Properties of Medlar (Mespilus germanica L.)
Lhami Gülçin, Fevzi Topal, Sevim Beyza, Sevim Beyza Öztürk Sarıkaya (2011) · Records of Natural Products
Characterization of polyphenoloxidase from medlar fruits (Mespilus germanica L., Rosaceae)
Barbaros Dinçer, Ahmet Çolak, Neşe Aydın, Asim Kadıoğlu (2002) · Food Chemistry
Changes in sugars, organic acids and amino acids in medlar (Mespilus germanica L.) during fruit development and maturation
Robert H. Glew, Faik Ahmet Ayaz, Carlos Sanz, Dorothy J. VanderJagt (2003) · Food Chemistry
Effect of Five Different Stages of Ripening on Chemical Compounds in Medlar (Mespilus germanica L.)
Otakar Rop, Jiří­ Sochor, Tünde Jurí­ková, Ondřej Zítka (2010) · Molecules
Supercritical fluid extraction of volatile components from Bunium persicum Boiss. (black cumin) and Mespilus germanica L. (medlar) seeds
Seied Mahdi Pourmortazavi, M Ghadiri, Somayeh Mirsadeghi (2004) · Journal of Food Composition and Analysis
Enrichment of common carp ( Cyprinus carpio ) diet with medlar ( Mespilus germanica ) leaf extract: Effects on skin mucosal immunity and growth performance
Seyed Hossein Hoseinifar, Hassan Khodadadian Zou, Hamed Kolangi Miandare, Hien Van Doan (2017) · Fish & Shellfish Immunology
Molecular Reappraisal of Relationships Between Crataegus and Mespilus (Rosaceae, Pyreae)—Two Genera or One?
Y.Y. Lo Eugenia, Saša Stefanović, Timothy A. Dickinson (2007) · Systematic Botany

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.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 7 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; 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 8 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.