Species
+

Prunus lusitanica L.

Portugal Laurel, Portugal laurel (EN), Portuguese laurel, Portuguese laurel cherry

Climate known 80 photographs Temperate garden plant
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

Prunus lusitanica, the Portuguese laurel cherry or Portugal laurel, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae, native to the Iberian Peninsula, Morocco, the Macaronesian archipelagos, and the French Basque Country.

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

About the genus · Prunus

Prunus is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs from the rose family (Rosaceae) that produce stone fruits, or drupes. As of March 2024, the genus has about 340 accepted species, including almonds, apricots, cherries, peaches, and plums. It has a cosmopolitan distribution, being native to the temperate regions of North America, the neotropics of South America, and temperate and tropical regions of Eurasia and Africa.

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

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
France, Portugal, Spain +4
Wild records
921 in range· 825 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Jul, mean day; nights 15 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
849mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 92 mm (CHELSA)
Light
6–37DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Prunus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and March to May in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 849 mm a year, wettest October at 92 mm, driest August at 57 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -5.2 °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 Cerasus lusitanica (L.) Dum.Cours.; Cerasus lusitanica (L.) Loisel.; Cerasus lusitanica var. angustifolia Lavallée; Cerasus lusitanica var. crassifolia Lavallée; Cerasus lusitanica var. ormistoniensis Lavallée and 24 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Prunus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and March to May 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 (614 mm of 849 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and March to May. Mean temperature moves 14.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to July and September to November.

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 849 mm a year, wettest October at 92 mm, driest August at 57 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

849 mm a year at the habitat, 614 mm of it September to January and March to May. Wettest month October at 92 mm, driest August at 57 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 688 mm to 1334 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: 6 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 37 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 5, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

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 -5.2 °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 -5.2 °C, the absolute minimum -8.5 °C, about 56 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells -1.1 °C to 4.8 °C), warmest day 23.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.2 °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: 59 to 67% 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 7 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Jan to 15 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 849 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 793 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -8.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.9 °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°frost37.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-8.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 6–37RH 59–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 793 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 °C7 / 5–108 / 7–1111 / 10–1414 / 12–1618 / 15–2021 / 18–2424 / 20–2724 / 20–2720 / 18–2416 / 15–1911 / 9–138 / 6–10
Night °C1 / -1–52 / -1–53 / 2–66 / 4–89 / 8–1112 / 11–1415 / 13–1715 / 13–1712 / 11–149 / 7–125 / 3–82 / 0–6
Rain mm78 / 56–12560 / 47–10162 / 51–10466 / 52–11373 / 62–11959 / 41–9359 / 25–8357 / 36–8668 / 49–10992 / 70–14486 / 58–13489 / 65–147
DLI8 / 6–1213 / 11–1821 / 18–2730 / 28–3435 / 33–3937 / 35–4537 / 34–4632 / 29–3924 / 21–3015 / 13–209 / 7–136 / 5–10
RH %66 / 62–6864 / 60–6562 / 59–6460 / 58–6260 / 58–6360 / 57–6359 / 55–6359 / 56–6361 / 58–6364 / 61–6566 / 62–6867 / 62–70

Each figure is the median across the 793 grid cells holding the 914 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 1011:3492 (39.425, -5.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -8.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.9 °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 793 distinct grid cells holding the 914 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1011:3492 (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 39.50_-5.625, lapse-corrected +292 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 805 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.
NativeFrance, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, New South Wales, British Columbia, Oregon, Washington, California
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker48.834, 2.124 · in the densest population, 393 records (43% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 921 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 825 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 644 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 7 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 921 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Prunus lusitanicaPrunus lusitanicaPrunus lusitanicaPrunus lusitanicaPrunus lusitanicaPrunus lusitanicaPrunus lusitanicaPrunus lusitanica

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (8).

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

Infestation of Wild and Ornamental Noncrop Fruits by Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae)
J. C. Lee, Amy J. Dreves, Adam Cave, S. Kawai (2015) · Annals of the Entomological Society of America
The interplay of hydraulic failure and cell vitality explains tree capacity to recover from drought
Marylou Mantova, Paulo Eduardo Menezes‐Silva, Éric Badel, Hervé Cochard (2021) · Physiologia Plantarum
Fungal Planet description sheets: 1436–1477
Yu Pei Tan, S.L. Bishop-Hurley, Roger G. Shivas, Don A. Cowan (2022) · Persoonia - Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Fungi
Treefall gap characteristics and regeneration in the laurel forest of Tenerife
José Ramón Arévalo, José María Fernández‐Palacios (1998) · Journal of Vegetation Science
A Quaternary perspective on the conservation prospects of the Tertiary relict tree Prunus lusitanica L.
Juan Antonio Calleja, Marta Benito Garzón, Helios Sáinz Ollero (2008) · Journal of Biogeography
Tertiary relict trees in a Mediterranean climate: abiotic constraints on the persistence of Prunus lusitanica at the eroding edge of its range
Fernando Pulido, Fernando Valladares, Juan Antonio Calleja, Gerardo Moreno (2008) · Journal of Biogeography
Tree regeneration and future dynamics of the laurel forest on Tenerife, Canary Islands
José Ramón Arévalo, José Fernández‐Palacios María, Michael W. Palmer (1999) · Journal of Vegetation Science
Prunus lusitanica L. Fruits as a Novel Source of Bioactive Compounds with Antioxidant Potential: Exploring the Unknown
Ana Abraão, Nelson Ferreira Fernandes, Amélia M. Silva, Raúl Domínguez‐Perles (2022) · Antioxidants
Intraspecific variation in heritable secondary metabolites and defensive strategies in a relict tree
Adara Pardo, Yonatan Cáceres Escudero, Fernando Pulido (2016) · Journal of Plant Ecology
Modificaciones a “New Checklist of Spanish mosses” IV*
Casas Creu (1999) · Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Briología
A brioflora de enclaves com Prunus lusitanica L. no Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela
Cecı́lia Sérgio, Rosa María Cros i Matas, Montserrat Brugués, César García (2001) · Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Briología

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 Prunus 29 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 75 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.