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Origanum sipyleum; photograph (c) Serdar Ölez, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Serdar Ölez, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2018-10-07

Origanum sipyleum L.

Lamiaceae · East Aegean Is., Turkey

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Origanum sipyleum, photograph (c) Serdar Ölez, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Origanum sipyleum, photograph (c) Serdar Ölez, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Origanum sipyleum, photograph (c) Serdar Ölez, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Origanum sipyleum, photograph (c) Serdar Ölez, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Origanum sipyleum, photograph Tournasol7, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsOriganum sipyleum, photograph Tournasol7, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 7 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-7.1°C
Record low -13.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
813mm
8 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
13–49DLI
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 November to March, 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.

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Origanum", 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 (622 mm of 826 mm) falls in November to March, the cooler part of the year, but the mean nightly low is below freezing in March, so the rule reads no growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

826 mm in the median year at the habitat, 622 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 163 mm, driest month August at 6 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 529 mm to 1,273 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 813 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 826 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: 13 to 49 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 10, 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 -7.1 °C, the absolute minimum -13.4 °C, 1,975 frost nights in 44 years, 44.9 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -0.3 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range -3.8 °C to 7.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.1 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -7.1 °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: 50 to 63% 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 -316 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

Habitat climate of Origanum sipyleum through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low -0.3 °C; 826 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.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost36.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-13.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 13–49RH 50–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 14 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 °C8 / 5–119 / 6–1212 / 10–1315 / 15–1821 / 18–2325 / 22–2829 / 24–3229 / 24–3125 / 22–2719 / 18–2214 / 11–169 / 6–13
Night °C0 / -4–90 / -4–82 / -1–106 / 3–1210 / 7–1514 / 11–1917 / 14–2117 / 14–2114 / 11–1910 / 7–165 / 1–132 / -2–10
Rain mm138 / 57–249111 / 47–17291 / 48–12358 / 54–7942 / 34–5017 / 2–399 / 0–246 / 0–1820 / 12–2452 / 39–86119 / 47–205163 / 69–272
DLI15 / 12–1721 / 17–2330 / 26–3237 / 34–3943 / 41–4549 / 45–5049 / 46–5044 / 42–4635 / 33–3725 / 21–2717 / 14–1913 / 10–15
RH %61 / 60–6460 / 58–6359 / 55–6056 / 53–5854 / 50–5751 / 47–5550 / 45–5450 / 46–5552 / 48–5655 / 52–5959 / 56–6263 / 60–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 14 grid cells holding the 14 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 1062:4234 (36.875, 31.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -13.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -7.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.8 °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 14 distinct grid cells holding 14 of the 14 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1062:4234 (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 37.00_31.875, lapse-corrected -316 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 865 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.
NativeEast Aegean Is., Turkey · 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 marker38.417, 27.433 · in the densest population, 52 records (83% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 63 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 14 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 11 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 74 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 49 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 63 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Origanum sipyleum, photograph 1did not loadOriganum sipyleum, photograph 2did not loadOriganum sipyleum, photograph 3did not loadOriganum sipyleum, photograph 4did not loadOriganum sipyleum, photograph 5did not loadOriganum sipyleum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Serdar Ölez, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4); Tournasol7, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2).

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

Crocus melantherus Crocus melantherus Iridaceae Photo: CC BY, Pantazi KaterinaHelleborus vesicarius Helleborus vesicarius Ranunculaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Zeynel CebeciTurritis laxa Turritis laxa Brassicaceae Photo: CC BY, Marios ThomaAbies numidica Abies numidica Algerian fir Photo: CC BY, Anis DrisCrocus kotschyanus Crocus kotschyanus Kotschy's crocus Photo: CC BY, Jose Gutierrez HigaLysimachia atropurpurea Lysimachia atropurpurea Primulaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Alessia Guggisberg

Other Origanum 16 in the reference

Origanum acutidens Origanum acutidens Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Ghislain118 (AD)…Origanum amanum Origanum amanum Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Emőke DénesOriganum calcaratum Origanum calcaratum Dittany of Amorgos Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizOriganum compactum Origanum compactum Lamiaceae Photo: CC0, Jun2013Origanum dictamnus Origanum dictamnus Cretan dittany Photo: CC BY-SA, Grzegorz GrzejszczakOriganum hypericifolium Origanum hypericifolium Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, DomsGarden Origanum × intercedens Lamiaceae Origanum laevigatum Origanum laevigatum Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Ghislain118 (AD)…Origanum libanoticum Origanum libanoticum Lebanon Oregano Photo: CC BY, elias ziadeOriganum majorana Origanum majorana Pot marjoram Photo: CC BY, Daniel CahenOriganum × majoricum Origanum × majoricum Italian oregano Photo: CC BY-SA, Cantallops MartíOriganum onites Origanum onites Pot marjoram Photo: CC BY, Eleftherios Katsillis all 17 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Amaracus sipyleus; Majorana sipylea. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
East Aegean Is., Turkey
Wild records
63 in range · 11 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; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium; 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 37.00_31.875, lapse-corrected -316 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 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 nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons 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 13 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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