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Rosa pulverulenta; photograph (c) yelena_antipova, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) yelena_antipova, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-10-25

Rosa pulverulenta M.Bieb.

Mediterranean Sweet-briar

Rosaceae · France, Spain +19 · listed by its genus as a temperate garden plant

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Rosa pulverulenta, photograph (c) yelena_antipova, some rights reserved (CC BY)Rosa pulverulenta, photograph (c) yelena_antipova, some rights reserved (CC BY)Rosa pulverulenta, photograph (c) yelena_antipova, some rights reserved (CC BY)Rosa pulverulenta, photograph (c) yelena_antipova, some rights reserved (CC BY)Rosa pulverulenta, photograph (c) yelena_antipova, some rights reserved (CC BY)Rosa pulverulenta, photograph (c) Umut Nuri Erdoğan, some rights reserved (CC BY) 26 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-9.2°C
Record low -16.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
769mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
13–47DLI
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 September to January and April to May, with nights below freezing; no growing season read. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Rosa pulverulenta (syn. Rosa glutinosa Sm.), the Cretan rose, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae. It is native to the Mediterranean, the Caucasus, and western Asia, and it has been introduced to Argentina. An aromatic, compact shrub, its stems are densely covered in larger stiff prickles, smaller needle-like prickles, and bristles of glandular origin.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Rosa pulverulenta", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant, listed under the genus Rosa in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “subshrub or shrub”, “temperate”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season and no growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (526 mm of 742 mm) falls in September to January and April to May, the cooler part of the year, but the mean nightly low is below freezing in February and January, so the rule reads no growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to July and October to November.

Rain

742 mm in the median year at the habitat, 526 mm of it September to January and April to May. Wettest month December at 88 mm, driest month July at 24 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 549 mm to 1,267 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 769 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 742 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: 13 to 47 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 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -9.2 °C, the absolute minimum -16.5 °C, 6,073 frost nights in 44 years, 138.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -3.0 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -9.3 °C to 1.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.8 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -9.2 °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: 52 to 59% 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 +410 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.

Group. Listed under the genus Rosa in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “subshrub or shrub”, “temperate”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Rosa pulverulenta through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -3.0 °C; 742 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°frost31.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-16.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 13–47RH 52–59%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 280 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 °C6 / 1–97 / 1–1110 / 4–1412 / 8–1516 / 12–1921 / 17–2525 / 20–2824 / 20–2820 / 16–2315 / 11–189 / 5–136 / 2–10
Night °C-3 / -9–1-3 / -9–2-1 / -5–41 / -2–55 / 2–910 / 7–1313 / 9–1613 / 9–169 / 6–135 / 2–101 / -3–5-2 / -8–3
Rain mm64 / 36–12853 / 31–11453 / 35–10278 / 54–12678 / 45–12852 / 18–12424 / 3–9334 / 8–10658 / 35–10580 / 54–13380 / 50–15788 / 47–177
DLI15 / 12–1821 / 18–2530 / 26–3337 / 33–4041 / 38–4546 / 40–5047 / 41–5141 / 36–4632 / 28–3723 / 19–2716 / 13–1913 / 10–16
RH %59 / 54–6358 / 55–6157 / 54–6057 / 54–6156 / 53–6153 / 49–6152 / 44–6053 / 46–6056 / 52–6159 / 55–6159 / 56–6359 / 55–63
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 280 grid cells holding the 394 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 993:3589 (40.325, -0.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -16.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -9.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.9 °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 280 distinct grid cells holding 394 of the 394 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 993:3589 (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 40.50_-0.625, lapse-corrected +410 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1598 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.
NativeFrance, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey · introduced: Argentina South · 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 marker37, -3.26 · in the densest population, 253 records (39% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 643 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 394 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 140 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3743 km away. 5 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 249 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 643 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Rosa pulverulenta, photograph 1did not loadRosa pulverulenta, photograph 2did not loadRosa pulverulenta, photograph 3did not loadRosa pulverulenta, photograph 4did not loadRosa pulverulenta, photograph 5did not loadRosa pulverulenta, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) yelena_antipova, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Umut Nuri Erdoğan, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Astragalus nevadensis Astragalus nevadensis Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Flavien SaboureauErodium carvifolium Erodium carvifolium Geraniaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Cesar SilvestreNepeta caerulea Nepeta caerulea Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Diego AlexArenaria tetraquetra Arenaria tetraquetra Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC BY, Santiago Martín-BravoJasione crispa Jasione crispa Dwarf Sheep's-bit Photo: CC BY, Santiago Martín-Bravo Guenthera repanda Brassicaceae

Other Rosa 126 in the reference

Rosa abietina Rosa abietina Needle rose Photo: CC BY-SA, michele barrereRosa abyssinica Rosa abyssinica Abyssinian rose Photo: CC BY, Jacky JudasRosa acicularis Rosa acicularis Prickly rose Photo: CC BY, Syd CanningsRosa agrestis Rosa agrestis Small-leaved Sweet-briar Photo: CC BY, Bobo-XRosa × alba Rosa × alba White rose of York Photo: CC BY, jamie-aaRosa alberti Rosa alberti Rosaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexander DubyninRosa amblyotis Rosa amblyotis Rosaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Salicyna Rosa × andegavensis Rosaceae Rosa arkansana Rosa arkansana Prairie rose Photo: CC0, author not statedRosa arvensis Rosa arvensis Field rose Photo: CC BY, David SandlerRosa balsamica Rosa balsamica Round-leaved dog-rose Photo: CC BY-SA, Andrea MoroRosa banksiae Rosa banksiae Banksian rose Photo: CC BY, Janetmhm all 127 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Pugetia pulverulenta; Rosa agrestis subsp. sicula; Rosa azerbaidshanica; Rosa azerbajdzhanica; Rosa brachiata and 77 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
M.Bieb.
Native to
France, Spain, Albania +18
Wild records
643 in range · 140 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; 14 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (13 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a zoo; 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 40.50_-0.625, lapse-corrected +410 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 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 64 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…