Mortonia utahensis (Coville) A.Nelson
Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Mortonia utahensis (Coville) A.Nelson: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Coville ex A.Gray) J.Nelson.
77 photographs › At a glance
- Jan, shaded
- Feb, shaded
- Mar, shaded
- Apr
- May
- Jun, under 5 mm of rain
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep
- Oct, shaded
- Nov
- Dec, shaded
Summary
Mortonia utahensis is a species of flowering plant in the family Celastraceae known by the common name Utah mortonia. It is native to the southwestern United States, where it grows in desert and mountain scrub and woodland, often on limestone substrates. It is a broomlike shrub growing erect to a maximum height near 1.2 meters. Its branching stems are white to gray in color and rough-haired. More on Wikipedia ›
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Mortonia utahensis", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (141 mm of 185 mm) falls in December to March, July to August and October, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 16.2 °C against a yearly mean of 18.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to February, April and June to September.
Rain
185 mm in the median year at the habitat, 141 mm of it December to March, July to August and October. Wettest month February at 29 mm, driest month June at 3 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 137 mm to 260 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 191 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 185 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 55 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 55).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -4.6 °C, the absolute minimum -13.3 °C, 2,318 frost nights in 44 years, 52.7 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 1.5 °C in January and December (across the grid cells of the range -0.9 °C to 3.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 36.8 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 33 to 48% 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 -307 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
Habitat months, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 12 °C in Jan and Dec to 37 °C in Jul; mean nightly low from 2 °C in Jan and Dec to 24 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 2 months in a row that tie for it. 185 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 148 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was -13.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 12 / 10–14 | 14 / 12–16 | 19 / 16–21 | 23 / 21–26 | 29 / 26–32 | 34 / 31–37 | 37 / 34–39 | 36 / 33–38 | 32 / 29–34 | 25 / 22–27 | 17 / 15–19 | 12 / 10–13 |
| Night °C | 2 / -1–3 | 3 / 0–5 | 6 / 4–8 | 10 / 7–13 | 15 / 13–18 | 20 / 18–23 | 24 / 22–27 | 23 / 21–26 | 19 / 16–21 | 12 / 10–15 | 6 / 4–8 | 2 / -1–3 |
| Rain mm | 23 / 18–31 | 29 / 23–39 | 22 / 17–30 | 10 / 7–14 | 6 / 4–8 | 3 / 2–5 | 14 / 9–28 | 16 / 11–30 | 11 / 8–19 | 15 / 7–21 | 14 / 11–19 | 22 / 16–31 |
| DLI | 20 / 19–22 | 26 / 25–28 | 36 / 35–38 | 46 / 45–47 | 52 / 51–52 | 55 / 54–55 | 51 / 51–52 | 46 / 45–48 | 40 / 39–41 | 31 / 29–32 | 22 / 21–24 | 18 / 17–20 |
| RH % | 48 / 46–51 | 47 / 45–50 | 43 / 41–46 | 39 / 36–41 | 36 / 33–39 | 33 / 31–36 | 36 / 34–39 | 39 / 36–41 | 38 / 36–41 | 41 / 39–43 | 44 / 42–47 | 47 / 45–51 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Kenzie Anderson-Bell, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Katrina Smith, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Cylindropuntia echinocarpa Wiggins's cholla Photo: CC BY, CK2AZ
Penstemon bicolor Pinto beardtongue Photo: CC BY-SA, Stan Shebs
Eriogonum deflexum Skeleton-weed Photo: CC BY, CK2AZ
Encelia virginensis Virgin River brittlebush Photo: CC BY, CK2AZ
Ericameria paniculata Mojave rabbitbrush Photo: CC BY, Aaron ListonOther Mortonia 3 in the reference
Mortonia greggii Gregg's saddlebush Photo: CC BY, Luis F. Ramírez
Mortonia scabrella Rio Grande saddlebush Photo: CC0, author not stated
Mortonia sempervirens Rio Grande saddlebush Photo: CC BY, CK2AZ Names & registers
Also known as Mortonia scabrella var. utahensis. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 8056387 is Mortonia utahensis (Coville ex A.Gray) J.Nelson; the page links Kew's Mortonia utahensis (Coville) A.Nelson, and the name is cited as Kew cites itgbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 232 records of GBIF's key 5414283, Mortonia utahensis (Coville) A.Nelson (Kew's file holds it as Mortonia utahensis (Coville) A.Nelson (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search APIclimate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.50_-115.625, lapse-corrected -307 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 164459-2 is Kew's for Mortonia utahensis (Coville) A.Nelsonwikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 37 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.