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Rheum rhaponticum; photograph Vendula Mal, CC BY-SA, via GBIF CC BY-SAVendula Mal, CC BY-SA, via GBIF

Rheum rhaponticum L.

False Rhubarb; Rhubarb

Polygonaceae · Bulgaria

No habitat climate
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Rheum rhaponticum, photograph Alexander Čaja, CC BY-SA, via GBIFRheum rhaponticum, photograph Hervé Rey, CC BY-SA, via GBIFRheum rhaponticum, photograph Jean noel saccavini, CC BY-SA, via GBIFRheum rhaponticum, photograph Goossens Roos, CC BY-SA, via GBIFRheum rhaponticum, photograph Goossens Roos, CC BY-SA, via GBIFRheum rhaponticum, photograph Tomas Evanger, CC BY-SA, via GBIF 24 photographs ›

Summary

Rheum rhaponticum, the false rhubarb, rhapontic rhubarb or rhapontic, is a plant species in the genus Rheum found in the wild. It is the only Rheum species found only in Europe, and is now restricted to the Rila mountain range in south-western Bulgaria. It was introduced to other countries in Europe. It is considered to be one of the parents of the modern culinary rhubarb.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Rheum rhaponticum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Nothing derived: no habitat climate for this species.

Climate across the habitat

No habitat climate can be derived: Only 1 distinct land cell of the climate grid holds an in-range record placed to within 10 km; three are needed for an envelope.

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBulgaria · introduced: Norway, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Colombia · 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).
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on the one georeferenced record inside the native range, openly licensed and shown on the map. 180 records outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the map. No climate across the range is derived for this species.

Photographs

Rheum rhaponticum, photograph 1did not loadRheum rhaponticum, photograph 2did not loadRheum rhaponticum, photograph 3did not loadRheum rhaponticum, photograph 4did not loadRheum rhaponticum, photograph 5did not loadRheum rhaponticum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Alexander Čaja, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Hervé Rey, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Jean noel saccavini, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Goossens Roos, CC BY-SA, via GBIF (2); Tomas Evanger, CC BY-SA, via GBIF.

Other Rheum 21 in the reference

Rheum acuminatum Rheum acuminatum Himalayan rhubarb Photo: CC BY, Morten RossRheum alexandrae Rheum alexandrae Polygonaceae Photo: CC BY, Wang.QGRheum australe Rheum australe Himalayan rhubarb Photo: CC BY, Sagnik Dutta RoyRheum compactum Rheum compactum Polygonaceae Photo: CC BY, ivansemenkovRheum cordatum Rheum cordatum Polygonaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexander Dubynin Rheum delavayi Polygonaceae Rheum fedtschenkoi Rheum fedtschenkoi Polygonaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, User:BotBln Rheum forrestii Polygonaceae Rheum maximowiczii Rheum maximowiczii Polygonaceae Photo: CC BY, Вячеслав Юсупов Rheum moorcroftianum Polygonaceae Rheum nobile Rheum nobile Sikkim rhubarb Photo: CC0, author not statedRheum officinale Rheum officinale Tibetan rhubarb Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt Stüber all 22 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Rhabarbarum rhaponticum; Rheum esculentum; Rheum rotundatum; Rheum rotundifolium; Rheum sibericum and 2 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Rheum compactum Kar. & Kir. is an older name of this species, not Rheum compactum, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Polygonaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Bulgaria
Wild records
1 in range · 1 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; 20 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (17 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 2 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22only 1 distinct land cell of the climate grid holds an in-range record placed to within 10 km; three are needed for an envelope
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 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 59 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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