Species
+

Phlox subulata L.

Moss Phlox, creeping phlox, ground pink, hana-tsumekusa

Climate known 52 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

Phlox subulata the creeping phlox, moss phlox, moss pink or mountain phlox, is a species of flowering plant in the family Polemoniaceae, native to the eastern and central United States, and widely cultivated.

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

About the genus · Phlox

Phlox is a genus of 68 species of perennial and annual plants in the family Polemoniaceae. They are found mostly in North America in diverse habitats from alpine tundra to open woodland and prairie. Some flower in spring, others in summer and fall. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Phlox”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Polemoniaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia +29
Wild records
1027 in range· 214 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jul, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1158mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 111 mm (CHELSA)
Light
11–39DLI
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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1158 mm a year, wettest July at 111 mm, driest February at 77 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -16.0 °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 Phlox subulata f. subulata; Phlox subulata var. subulata.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (811 mm of 1158 mm) takes 8 months, March to October. Mean temperature moves 24.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September 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 1158 mm a year, wettest July at 111 mm, driest February at 77 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1158 mm a year at the habitat, 811 mm of it March to October. Wettest month July at 111 mm, driest February at 77 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 893 mm to 1358 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: 11 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 39 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 41).

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 -16.0 °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 -16.0 °C, the absolute minimum -25.6 °C, about 117 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -5.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells -13.2 °C to -0.5 °C), warmest day 27.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -16.0 °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: 56 to 60% 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 28 °C in Jul; mean night from -6 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1158 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 750 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -25.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost33.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-25.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 11–39RH 56–60 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 750 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 / -4–84 / -2–118 / 3–1515 / 10–2020 / 17–2525 / 22–2928 / 24–3127 / 23–3023 / 19–2616 / 13–2110 / 6–155 / -1–10
Night °C-6 / -13–-1-5 / -12–1-1 / -7–45 / 1–910 / 7–1416 / 13–1918 / 16–2118 / 15–2114 / 11–178 / 5–113 / -1–6-3 / -9–1
Rain mm82 / 52–10377 / 49–10696 / 57–12396 / 74–117104 / 85–122107 / 91–122111 / 90–132100 / 84–118102 / 86–11895 / 73–12193 / 72–12195 / 59–117
DLI13 / 11–1619 / 17–2126 / 25–2832 / 31–3537 / 35–3939 / 38–4138 / 37–4034 / 33–3527 / 25–2920 / 16–2413 / 10–1711 / 8–14
RH %58 / 56–6457 / 55–6256 / 55–5956 / 54–5757 / 56–6059 / 57–6159 / 57–6260 / 58–6260 / 58–6259 / 57–6159 / 57–6259 / 57–64

Each figure is the median across the 750 grid cells holding the 943 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 963:2172 (41.825, -71.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -25.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -16.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.7 °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 750 distinct grid cells holding the 943 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 963:2172 (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 42.00_-71.250, lapse-corrected -45 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 18 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.
NativeManitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Québec, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Utah, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia· introduced: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Uzbekistan, Illinois, Alabama
Kew's description“subshrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker39.41, -76.843 · in the densest population, 427 records (42% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1027 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 214 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 19 km away. 825 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 84 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1027 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Phlox subulataPhlox subulataPhlox subulataPhlox subulataPhlox subulataPhlox subulataPhlox subulataPhlox subulata

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Lindsey G., some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Bonnie Semmling, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

In vitro induction of tetraploids in Phlox subulata L.
Zhihong Zhang, Hongyan Dai, Min Xiao, Xin Liu (2007) · Euphytica
PsCor413pm2, a Plasma Membrane-Localized, Cold-Regulated Protein from Phlox subulata, Confers Low Temperature Tolerance in Arabidopsis
Aimin Zhou, Enhui Liu, He Li, Yang Li (2018) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Allelopathic activity of leaching from dry leaves and exudate from roots of ground cover plants assayed on agar
Sayaka Shiraishi, Izumi Watanabe, Katsuji Kuno, Yoshiharu Fujii (2002) · Weed Biology and Management
Differential Growth Response to Salt Stress Among Selected Ornamentals
Seok Hyun Eom, Tim L. Setter, Antonio DiTommaso, Leslie A. Weston (2007) · Journal of Plant Nutrition
Unraveling Physiological and Metabolomic Responses Involved in Phlox subulata L. Tolerance to Drought Stress
Yan Q. Xiong, QU Yan-ting, Hui Han, Fei Chen (2020) · Plant Molecular Biology Reporter
A novel cold-regulated gene from Phlox subulata, PsCor413im1, enhances low temperature tolerance in Arabidopsis
Aimin Zhou, Hong‐Wei Sun, Shuang Feng, Mi Zhou (2017) · Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
Diverging pathways: Differential benzenoid and phenylpropanoid volatile production in Phlox subulata L. cultivars
Cassie J. Majetic, Brittany N. Sinka (2013) · Biochemical Systematics and Ecology
2-C-methyl-d-erythritol is a major carbohydrate in petals of Phlox subulata possibly involved in flower development
Hiroyuki Enomoto, Katsunori Kohata, Masayoshi Nakayama, Yuichi Yamaguchi (2004) · Journal of Plant Physiology
Evaluation of Herbaceous Perennials as Weed Suppressive Groundcovers for Use Along Roadsides or in Landscapes
Seok Hyun Eom, Andrew F. Senesac, Irene Tsontakis-Bradley, Leslie A. Weston (2005) · Journal of Environmental Horticulture
De Novo Transcriptome Sequencing of Low Temperature-Treated Phlox subulata and Analysis of the Genes Involved in Cold Stress
QU Yan-ting, Aimin Zhou, Xing Zhang, Huanwei Tang (2015) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Evaluation of Different Combinations of Ornamental Perennials for Sustainable Management in Urban Greening
Enrico Pomatto, Federica Larcher, Matteo Caser, Walter Gaino (2023) · Plants

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 Phlox 5 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 96 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.