Species
+

Origanum majorana L.

Garten-Majoran (DE), Majerona, Marjoram, Pot Majoram

Climate known 45 photographs
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

Marjoram is a cold-sensitive perennial herb or undershrub with sweet pine and citrus flavours. In some Middle Eastern countries, marjoram is synonymous with oregano, and there the names sweet marjoram and knotted marjoram are used to distinguish it from other plants of the genus Origanum. It is also called pot marjoram, although this name is also used for other cultivated species of Origanum.

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

About the genus · Origanum

Origanum is a genus of herbaceous perennial flowering plants and subshrubs in the family Lamiaceae. They are native to Europe, North Africa, and much of temperate Asia, where they are found in open or mountainous habitats. A few species also naturalized in scattered locations in North America and other regions.

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

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Cyprus, Turkey
Wild records
28 in range· 24 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jul, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
687mm/yr
8 wet months · peak Dec 139 mm (CHELSA)
Light
14–50DLI
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 winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 687 mm a year, wettest December at 139 mm, driest July at 4 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 50 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 3.6 °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 Amaracus majorana (L.) Schinz & Thell.; Majorana cretica var. hortorum Alef.; Majorana dubia (Boiss.) Briq.; Majorana fragrans Raf.; Majorana hortensis Moench and 18 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (530 mm of 687 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 12.3 °C against a yearly mean of 18.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

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 687 mm a year, wettest December at 139 mm, driest July at 4 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

687 mm a year at the habitat, 530 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 139 mm, driest July at 4 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 513 mm to 997 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: 14 to 50 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 50 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 9, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

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 3.6 °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 3.6 °C, the absolute minimum -0.7 °C, 3 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.4 °C in February (across the envelope cells 0.5 °C to 11.1 °C), warmest day 28.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.6 °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: 55 to 61% 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 12 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Jul; mean night from 6 °C in Feb to 23 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 687 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 26 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -0.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 39.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost39.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-0.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 14–50RH 55–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 26 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 °C12 / 8–1513 / 9–1415 / 11–1718 / 16–2022 / 20–2626 / 24–3029 / 27–3429 / 27–3326 / 24–3023 / 19–2518 / 14–2014 / 10–16
Night °C7 / 1–116 / 1–118 / 3–1211 / 7–1516 / 11–1820 / 16–2222 / 18–2423 / 18–2520 / 15–2317 / 11–2012 / 6–178 / 3–13
Rain mm130 / 78–19696 / 67–15369 / 45–10647 / 22–6228 / 16–499 / 5–454 / 2–354 / 2–3413 / 6–4452 / 34–8196 / 70–140139 / 91–216
DLI17 / 11–1823 / 17–2531 / 25–3439 / 33–4145 / 40–4750 / 43–5150 / 43–5045 / 38–4637 / 29–3827 / 19–2919 / 13–2114 / 9–16
RH %61 / 59–6560 / 58–6359 / 57–6258 / 55–6257 / 53–6355 / 50–6356 / 48–6358 / 50–6458 / 52–6358 / 55–6459 / 57–6461 / 59–65

Each figure is the median across the 26 grid cells holding the 28 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 1097:4267 (35.125, 33.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.8 °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 26 distinct grid cells holding the 28 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1097:4267 (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 35.00_33.125, lapse-corrected -120 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 178 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.
NativeCyprus, Turkey· introduced: Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, Spain, Greece, Italy, Yugoslavia, Baltic States, Krym, Ukraine, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Madeira, India, Venezuela, Juan Fernández Is.
Kew's description“annual or perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker35.024, 32.637 · in the densest population, 13 records (46% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 28 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 24 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 18 km away. 1645 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 28 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Origanum majoranaOriganum majoranaOriganum majoranaOriganum majoranaOriganum majoranaOriganum majoranaOriganum majoranaOriganum majorana

Photographs: (c) Daniel Cahen, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Marios Thoma, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

GC-MS Analysis of Essential Oils from Some Greek Aromatic Plants and Their Fungitoxicity on Penicillium digitatum
Dimitra Daferera, Basil N. Ziogas, Moschos G. Polissiou (2000) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Evaluation of antioxidant activity, total phenols and phenolic compounds in thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.), sage (Salvia officinalis L.), and marjoram (Origanum majorana L.) extracts
Mohamed H. H. Roby, Mohamed Atef Sarhan, Khaled A. Selim, Khalel Ibrahim Khalel (2012) · Industrial Crops and Products
Optimization of ultrasound assisted extraction of antioxidant compounds from marjoram (Origanum majorana L.) using response surface methodology
Mohammad B. Hossain, Nigel P. Brunton, Ankit Patras, Brijesh K. Tiwari (2011) · Ultrasonics Sonochemistry
Effect of growth stage on the content and composition of the essential oil and phenolic fraction of sweet marjoram (Origanum majorana L.)
Ibtissem Hamrouni Sellami, Emna Maamouri, Thouraya Chahed, Wissem Aidi Wannes (2009) · Industrial Crops and Products
In Vitro susceptibility ofHelicobacter pylori to botanical extracts used traditionally for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders
Gail B. Mahady, Susan L. Pendland, Adenia Stoia, Frank A. Hamill (2005) · Phytotherapy Research
Application of Origanum majorana L. essential oil as an antimicrobial agent in sausage
Cassiano Busatta, R.S. Vidal, Ariana S. Popiolski, Altemir José Mossi (2007) · Food Microbiology
The antimicrobial properties of marjoram (Origanum majorana L.) Volatile Oil
Stanley G. Deans, Katerina P. Svoboda (1990) · Flavour and Fragrance Journal
Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria improve growth and essential oil yield in Origanum majorana L.
Erika Banchio, Pablo Bogino, Julio A. Zygadlo, Walter Giordano (2008) · Biochemical Systematics and Ecology
Antimicrobial activity of five essential oils against origin strains of the Enterobacteriaceae family
Pedro Peñalver, Belén Huerta Lorenzo, C. Borge, R. Astorga (2005) · Apmis

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 Origanum 1 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 158 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.