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Rhaponticum scariosum; photograph Phil41, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Public domainPhil41, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Rhaponticum scariosum Lam.

Asteraceae · Switzerland, France +2

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

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Rhaponticum scariosum, photograph Hectonichus, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhaponticum scariosum, photograph Hectonichus, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhaponticum scariosum, photograph Enrico Blasutto, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhaponticum scariosum, photograph Enrico Blasutto, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhaponticum scariosum, photograph Enrico Blasutto, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsRhaponticum scariosum, photograph Meneerke bloem, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-20.9°C
Record low -33.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
16°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,736mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
10–39DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Rhaponticum scariosum, common name giant scabiosa, is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant of the genus Rhaponticum of the family Asteraceae.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Rhaponticum scariosum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,202 mm of 1,698 mm) takes 8 months, April to June and August to December. Mean temperature moves 20.2 °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.

Rain

1,698 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,202 mm of it April to June and August to December. Wettest month October at 166 mm, driest month February at 108 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,162 mm to 2,202 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,736 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,698 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: 10 to 39 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 7, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -20.9 °C, the absolute minimum -33.7 °C, 9,778 frost nights in 44 years, 222.2 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 22.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -13.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -16.4 °C to -7.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 16.0 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -20.9 °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: 57 to 62% 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 +76 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 Rhaponticum scariosum through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 16 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -13.4 °C; 1,698 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.-40°-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost22.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-33.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 10–39RH 57–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 264 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 °C-4 / -9–1-3 / -7–31 / -3–64 / 0–99 / 5–1413 / 10–1816 / 13–2116 / 13–2112 / 9–178 / 5–131 / -3–6-4 / -8–2
Night °C-13 / -16–-8-13 / -16–-7-9 / -12–-4-6 / -9–0-1 / -5–43 / 0–86 / 3–116 / 2–112 / -1–8-2 / -5–3-8 / -12–-2-12 / -16–-6
Rain mm130 / 64–186108 / 52–151124 / 75–169136 / 81–168158 / 110–214149 / 105–210134 / 85–214139 / 93–210155 / 100–195166 / 99–220151 / 96–188148 / 82–212
DLI12 / 8–1418 / 14–2127 / 23–3135 / 30–3838 / 34–4138 / 36–4239 / 36–4334 / 31–3826 / 23–3018 / 15–2112 / 9–1510 / 7–12
RH %57 / 54–6258 / 55–6160 / 57–6161 / 59–6362 / 60–6462 / 59–6460 / 57–6361 / 57–6362 / 59–6461 / 59–6460 / 57–6459 / 55–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 264 grid cells holding the 760 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 890:3734 (45.475, 6.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -33.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -20.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 22.1 °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 264 distinct grid cells holding 760 of the 760 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 890:3734 (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 45.50_6.875, lapse-corrected +76 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2084 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.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the keys of the names Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 3142184 (Rhaponticum scariosum Lam., 2000 records), 3142185 (Centaurea scariosa (Lam.) Rouy, 0 records), 4207986 (Rhaponticum scariosum subsp. lamarckii (Dittrich) Greuter, 0 records), 4244841 (Stemmacantha rhapontica subsp. lamarckii Dittrich, 75 records), 9597106 (Stemmacantha lamarckii (Dittrich) Landolt, 0 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeSwitzerland, France, Italy, Yugoslavia · 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 marker45.163, 6.469 · in the densest population, 599 records (78% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 772 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 760 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 721 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 12 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.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 3142184 (Rhaponticum scariosum Lam.): Kew's file holds it as Rhaponticum scariosum Lam. (accepted); 2,000 records, from GBIF's download.Records also from GBIF's key 3142185 (Centaurea scariosa (Lam.) Rouy): Kew's file holds it as Centaurea scariosa (Lam.) Rouy (synonym under Rhaponticum scariosum Lam.); 0 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.Records also from GBIF's key 4207986 (Rhaponticum scariosum subsp. lamarckii (Dittrich) Greuter): Kew's file holds it as Rhaponticum scariosum subsp. lamarckii (Dittrich) Greuter (invalid under Rhaponticum scariosum Lam.); 0 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.Records also from GBIF's key 4244841 (Stemmacantha rhapontica subsp. lamarckii Dittrich): Kew's file holds it as Stemmacantha rhapontica subsp. lamarckii Dittrich (synonym under Rhaponticum scariosum Lam.); 75 records, from GBIF's download.Records also from GBIF's key 9597106 (Stemmacantha lamarckii (Dittrich) Landolt): Kew's file holds it as Stemmacantha lamarckii (Dittrich) Landolt (synonym under Rhaponticum scariosum Lam.); 0 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 772 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Rhaponticum scariosum, photograph 1did not loadRhaponticum scariosum, photograph 2did not loadRhaponticum scariosum, photograph 3did not loadRhaponticum scariosum, photograph 4did not loadRhaponticum scariosum, photograph 5did not loadRhaponticum scariosum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Hectonichus, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); Enrico Blasutto, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (3); Meneerke bloem, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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

Viola calcarata Viola calcarata Violaceae Photo: CC BY, Katrin SimonCentaurea nervosa Centaurea nervosa Singleflower knapweed Photo: CC BY, Tony KMSalix retusa Salix retusa Salicaceae Photo: CC BY, Antoine ThivolleNoccaea rotundifolia Noccaea rotundifolia Round-leaved Pennycress Photo: CC BY, EliasDoronicum grandiflorum Doronicum grandiflorum Large-leaved leopard's bane Photo: CC BY, Augustin SoulardFestuca violacea Festuca violacea Violet fescue Photo: CC BY-SA, Bert Neele

Other Rhaponticum 9 in the reference

Rhaponticum australe Rhaponticum australe Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Don & Betty Wood Rhaponticum canariense Asteraceae Rhaponticum carthamoides Rhaponticum carthamoides Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, DoronenkoRhaponticum centauroides Rhaponticum centauroides Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Meneerke bloemRhaponticum coniferum Rhaponticum coniferum Asteraceae Photo: Public domain, Victor M. Vicente SelvasRhaponticum pulchrum Rhaponticum pulchrum Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz Rhaponticum pygmaeum Asteraceae Rhaponticum repens Rhaponticum repens Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Stan ShebsRhaponticum uniflorum Rhaponticum uniflorum Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Straybird726

Names & registers

Also known as Centaurea scariosa; Rhaponticum scariosum subsp. lamarckii; Stemmacantha lamarckii; Stemmacantha rhapontica subsp. lamarckii. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
Lam.
Native to
Switzerland, France, Italy +1
Wild records
772 in range · 721 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
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Rhaponticum scariosum Lam. (plant_name_id 3047002), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-22this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 2000 records of GBIF's key 3142184, Rhaponticum scariosum Lam. (Kew's file holds it as Rhaponticum scariosum Lam. (accepted)): the GBIF download; 0 records of GBIF's key 3142185, Centaurea scariosa (Lam.) Rouy (Kew's file holds it as Centaurea scariosa (Lam.) Rouy (synonym under Rhaponticum scariosum Lam.)): GBIF occurrence search API; 0 records of GBIF's key 4207986, Rhaponticum scariosum subsp. lamarckii (Dittrich) Greuter (Kew's file holds it as Rhaponticum scariosum subsp. lamarckii (Dittrich) Greuter (invalid under Rhaponticum scariosum Lam.)): GBIF occurrence search API; 75 records of GBIF's key 4244841, Stemmacantha rhapontica subsp. lamarckii Dittrich (Kew's file holds it as Stemmacantha rhapontica subsp. lamarckii Dittrich (synonym under Rhaponticum scariosum Lam.)): the GBIF download; 0 records of GBIF's key 9597106, Stemmacantha lamarckii (Dittrich) Landolt (Kew's file holds it as Stemmacantha lamarckii (Dittrich) Landolt (synonym under Rhaponticum scariosum Lam.)): GBIF occurrence search API; 14 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (14 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 45.50_6.875, lapse-corrected +76 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 241436-1, POWO 241436-1
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
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 40 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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