Prunus mahaleb L.
Felsenkirsche, Gandhi cherry, Mahaleb cherry, Mahaleb cherry (EN)
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 mahaleb, the St Lucie cherry or mahaleb cherry, is a species of cherry, native to central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, southwest Asia, and parts of central Asia. The tree is cultivated for a spice obtained from the seeds inside the cherry stones. The seeds have a fragrant scent and have a taste comparable to bitter almonds with cherry notes.
Text from Wikipedia, “Prunus mahaleb”, 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.
At a glance
Also known as Cerasus corymbosa St.-Lag.; Cerasus mahaleb (L.) Mill.; Cerasus mahaleb f. bernatskyi (Pénzes) Soó; Cerasus mahaleb f. fazekasii (Pénzes) Soó; Cerasus mahaleb f. sarkanyii (Pénzes) Soó and 43 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 (April to June and August to December 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 (601 mm of 838 mm) takes 8 months, April to June and August to December. Mean temperature moves 19.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: February to June and October to December.
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 838 mm a year, wettest October at 85 mm, driest February at 52 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
838 mm a year at the habitat, 601 mm of it April to June and August to December. Wettest month October at 85 mm, driest February at 52 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 557 mm to 1367 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: 8 to 38 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 38 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 45).
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 -5.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -5.5 °C, the absolute minimum -14.6 °C, about 52 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -2.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells -6.8 °C to 2.3 °C), warmest day 24.9 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.5 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 65% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 4 / 1–9 | 6 / 3–10 | 10 / 7–14 | 14 / 11–17 | 19 / 16–21 | 22 / 19–25 | 25 / 22–28 | 25 / 22–28 | 20 / 18–24 | 15 / 13–19 | 9 / 7–13 | 5 / 2–10 |
| Night °C | -3 / -7–2 | -2 / -6–3 | 1 / -2–5 | 5 / 1–7 | 9 / 6–12 | 13 / 10–16 | 15 / 12–18 | 15 / 12–18 | 11 / 9–15 | 7 / 5–11 | 3 / -1–6 | -1 / -5–3 |
| Rain mm | 64 / 30–110 | 52 / 29–98 | 57 / 35–105 | 69 / 37–114 | 76 / 57–127 | 72 / 45–114 | 64 / 25–109 | 66 / 40–111 | 76 / 48–129 | 85 / 37–159 | 79 / 43–157 | 78 / 39–143 |
| DLI | 10 / 6–14 | 15 / 11–20 | 23 / 18–28 | 31 / 28–35 | 36 / 33–40 | 38 / 35–45 | 38 / 34–45 | 33 / 29–39 | 25 / 20–30 | 17 / 13–21 | 11 / 7–14 | 8 / 5–11 |
| RH % | 64 / 58–67 | 62 / 57–64 | 59 / 56–62 | 58 / 56–60 | 58 / 56–61 | 58 / 54–61 | 57 / 52–60 | 57 / 54–60 | 60 / 57–63 | 62 / 59–65 | 65 / 60–67 | 65 / 59–68 |
Each figure is the median across the 474 grid cells holding the 663 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 891:3830 (45.425, 11.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -14.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.8 °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 474 distinct grid cells holding the 663 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 891:3830 (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 45.50_11.250, lapse-corrected +28 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 288 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (8).
Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media 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 mahaleb, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Salvia pratensis Introduced sage
Trapa natans Common water-chestnut, Water nut
Teucrium chamaedrys Wall Germander
Euphorbia cyparissias Cypress Spurge
Nepeta cataria Cat Mint
Viburnum lantana Wayfaring TreeOther Prunus 29 in the reference
Prunus americana American Plum
Prunus amygdalus Almond
Prunus avium Bird Cherry
Prunus campanulata Formosan cherry
Prunus caroliniana Carolina laurel cherry
Prunus cerasifera Cherry Plum
Prunus cerasus Amarelle Cherry
Prunus domestica Bullace plum
Prunus glandulifolia Amur choke cherry
Prunus ilicifolia Hollyleaf Cherry
Prunus laurocerasus Cherry Laurel all 30 ›History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search APIclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivationopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 8 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








