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Plagiobothrys hirtus; photograph United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Public domainUnited States Fish and Wildlife Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Plagiobothrys hirtus (Greene) I.M.Johnst.

Rough popcornflower

Boraginaceae · Oregon

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Plagiobothrys hirtus, photograph U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 2 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-3.4°C
Record low -16.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,261mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
8–47DLI
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, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 3 records in 3 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Plagiobothrys hirtus, the rough popcornflower, is a plant species with only about a dozen reportedly extant occurrences, all within the Umpqua River watershed in Douglas County, Oregon. It is federally listed endangered in the United States of America. In fact P. hirtus is now considered to be one of the top three most endangered vascular plant species in the Northwest. The state of Oregon has ranked this plant as its number one recovery priority due to its high degree of threat as well as its high rating in recovery potential. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Plagiobothrys hirtus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (901 mm of 1,265 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 6.8 °C against a yearly mean of 11.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

1,265 mm in the median year at the habitat, 901 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 238 mm, driest month July at 12 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,259 mm to 1,279 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,261 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,265 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: 8 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -3.4 °C, the absolute minimum -16.9 °C, 1,036 frost nights in 44 years, 23.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 1.4 °C in December (across the grid cells of the range 1.4 °C to 1.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.2 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.4 °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: 55 to 67% 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 -306 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 3 records in 3 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Plagiobothrys hirtus through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month December, mean nightly low 1.4 °C; 1,265 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°frost36.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-16.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 8–47RH 55–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 3 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 °C10121417 / 17–1720 / 20–202328 / 28–2828 / 28–282619 / 19–1913 / 12–139 / 9–9
Night °C2 / 2–22 / 2–24 / 4–45 / 5–58 / 8–810 / 10–1012 / 12–1212 / 12–1311 / 11–117 / 7–74 / 4–41 / 1–2
Rain mm181 / 179–184142 / 140–146132 / 131–13499 / 97–9976 / 75–7738 / 37–391214 / 14–1535 / 34–3590 / 89–93208 / 208–209238 / 237–238
DLI10 / 9–1015 / 15–1622 / 22–2331 / 31–3137 / 37–3742 / 42–4247 / 47–4742 / 41–4232 / 31–3220 / 19–2011 / 10–118 / 8–8
RH %66 / 66–67646361 / 61–6260 / 59–605855 / 54–55555661 / 61–6267 / 66–6767 / 66–67
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 3 grid cells holding the 3 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 933:1133 (43.325, -123.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -16.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.0 °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 3 distinct grid cells holding 3 of the 3 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 933:1133 (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 43.50_-123.125, lapse-corrected -306 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 219 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.
NativeOregon · 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 marker43.388, -123.312 · in the densest population, 11 records (100% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 11 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 3 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 3 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the map and the climate. 8 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 11 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Plagiobothrys hirtus, photograph 1did not load

Photographs: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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

Sisyrinchium hitchcockii Sisyrinchium hitchcockii Hitchcock's blue-eyed grass Photo: CC0, author not statedSidalcea cusickii Sidalcea cusickii Cusick's checkerbloom Photo: CC BY, Gail A BakerLomatium bradshawii Lomatium bradshawii Bradshaw's desert-parsley Photo: CC BY, Kieran HanrahanEryngium petiolatum Eryngium petiolatum Oregon Coyote-Thistle Photo: CC0, author not statedSymphyotrichum hallii Symphyotrichum hallii Hall's aster Photo: CC BY, ConquestTrillium albidum Trillium albidum Giant white wakerobin Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Plagiobothrys 6 in the reference

Plagiobothrys chorisianus Plagiobothrys chorisianus Artist's popcornflower Photo: CC0, author not statedPlagiobothrys figuratus Plagiobothrys figuratus Rough popcornflower Photo: CC BY, Alex WilsonPlagiobothrys nothofulvus Plagiobothrys nothofulvus Popcorn-flower Photo: CC0, author not statedPlagiobothrys scouleri Plagiobothrys scouleri White forget-me-not Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerPlagiobothrys tenellus Plagiobothrys tenellus Slender popcornflower Photo: CC BY, Dominic GentilcorePlagiobothrys tener Plagiobothrys tener Slender popcornflower Photo: CC0, author not stated

Names & registers

Also known as Allocarya calycosa; Allocarya hirta; Allocarya scouleri var. hirta; Krynitzkia hirta; Plagiobothrys scouleri var. hirtus. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Boraginaceae
Described by
(Greene) I.M.Johnst.
Native to
Oregon
Wild records
11 in range · 3 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 43.50_-123.125, lapse-corrected -306 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 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 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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