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Saxifraga brunonis; photograph Siddarth Machado, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYSiddarth Machado, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Saxifraga brunonis Wall. ex Ser.

Brown's Saxifrage

Saxifragaceae · China South-Central, Tibet +4

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Saxifraga brunonis, photograph Siddarth Machado, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFSaxifraga brunonis, photograph Siddarth Machado, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFSaxifraga brunonis, photograph Siddarth Machado, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFSaxifraga brunonis, photograph Morten Ross, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFSaxifraga brunonis, photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsSaxifraga brunonis, photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 8 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
-17.2°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
11°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,009mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–48DLI
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 summers: the rain comes May to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Saxifraga

Saxifraga is the largest genus in the family Saxifragaceae, containing about 473 species of holarctic perennial plants, known as saxifrages or rockfoils. The Latin word saxifraga means literally "stone-breaker", from Latin saxum + frangere. It is usually thought to indicate a medicinal use for treatment of urinary calculi, rather than breaking rocks apart.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Saxifraga", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,411 mm of 1,906 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 6.1 °C against a yearly mean of -1.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

1,906 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,411 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 406 mm, driest month December at 27 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,308 mm to 4,117 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,009 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,906 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: 27 to 48 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -17.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -20.8 °C to -3.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 11.4 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is -17.2 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 74% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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 Saxifraga brunonis through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 11 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -17.2 °C; 1,906 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°frost°C · day and nightcold quarter02004006008001000mm rainDLI 27–48RH 54–74%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 15 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-7 / -10–7-6 / -9–9-3 / -5–131 / -1–165 / 2–1810 / 7–1811 / 9–1711 / 9–1710 / 7–164 / 1–13-1 / -3–10-4 / -7–7
Night °C-17 / -21–-4-16 / -20–-3-14 / -16–0-10 / -12–4-5 / -7–81 / -2–114 / 3–114 / 3–111 / -1–9-6 / -9–6-11 / -15–1-14 / -18–-3
Rain mm48 / 29–14277 / 41–191111 / 59–23094 / 45–195135 / 77–300222 / 108–653406 / 282–932396 / 250–874252 / 166–623103 / 66–15635 / 14–5227 / 17–72
DLI29 / 20–3434 / 24–4042 / 31–4748 / 37–5247 / 35–5137 / 29–4429 / 24–3529 / 25–3430 / 24–3635 / 23–3831 / 20–3527 / 19–32
RH %55 / 52–6257 / 53–6457 / 55–6360 / 57–6564 / 60–7270 / 64–7674 / 69–7874 / 68–7670 / 65–7461 / 56–6956 / 51–6354 / 50–61

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, +1008 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum -27.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -19.1 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 15 grid cells holding the 18 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 1185:5192 (30.725, 79.625). 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 15 distinct grid cells holding 18 of the 18 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1185:5192 (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 30.50_79.375, lapse-corrected +1008 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 4192 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.
NativeChina South-Central, Tibet, East Himalaya, Nepal, West Himalaya, Myanmar · 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 marker28.85, 85.29 · in the densest population, 23 records (51% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub” · “subalpine or subarctic” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 45 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 18 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 11 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 194 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 27 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 45 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Saxifraga brunonis, photograph 1did not loadSaxifraga brunonis, photograph 2did not loadSaxifraga brunonis, photograph 3did not loadSaxifraga brunonis, photograph 4did not loadSaxifraga brunonis, photograph 5did not loadSaxifraga brunonis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Siddarth Machado, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3); Morten Ross, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2).

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

Rheum australe Rheum australe Himalayan rhubarb Photo: CC BY, Sagnik Dutta RoyRhododendron anthopogon Rhododendron anthopogon Ericaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Robert WebsterGeranium donianum Geranium donianum Geraniaceae Photo: CC BY, Morten RossLigusticopsis wallichiana Ligusticopsis wallichiana Apiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, peganum from Small Dole, England Argentina microphylla Rosaceae Calamagrostis emodensis Calamagrostis emodensis Garhwal Reedgrass Photo: CC BY-SA, Vinayaraj

Other Saxifraga 118 in the reference

Saxifraga adscendens Saxifraga adscendens Wedgeleaf saxifrage Photo: CC BY-SA, Emanuele SantarelliSaxifraga aizoides Saxifraga aizoides Yellow saxifrage Photo: CC BY, tetyanakuchma Saxifraga alberti Saxifragaceae Saxifraga alpigena Saxifragaceae Saxifraga andersonii Saxifraga andersonii Saxifragaceae Photo: CC BY, Sagnik Dutta RoySaxifraga androsacea Saxifraga androsacea Saxifragaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, xulescu_gSaxifraga aquatica Saxifraga aquatica Saxifragaceae Photo: CC BY, DDutreySaxifraga aretioides Saxifraga aretioides Saxifragaceae Photo: CC BY, Flavien SaboureauSaxifraga aspera Saxifraga aspera Saxifragaceae Photo: CC BY, E. BorchertSaxifraga biflora Saxifraga biflora Saxifragaceae Photo: CC BY, EliasSaxifraga brachypoda Saxifraga brachypoda Spiny-Leaf Saxifrage Photo: CC BY, Siddarth MachadoSaxifraga bronchialis Saxifraga bronchialis Spotted saxifrage Photo: CC BY, jjfeiler all 119 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Hirculus brunonianus; Saxifraga brunoniana; Saxifraga brunoniana var. majuscula. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidata

The record

Family
Saxifragaceae
Described by
Wall. ex Ser.
Native to
China South-Central, Tibet, East Himalaya +3
Wild records
45 in range · 11 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 30.50_79.375, lapse-corrected +1008 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, +1008 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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