14 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May, shaded
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
From few records: 8 records in 6 grid cells. The records.
About the genus · Scabiosa
Scabiosa is a genus in the honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae) of flowering plants. Many of the species in this genus have common names that include the word scabious, but some plants commonly known as scabious are currently classified in related genera such as Knautia and Succisa; at least some of these were formerly placed in Scabiosa. Another common name for members of this genus is pincushion flowers.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Scabiosa", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (905 mm of 1,186 mm) falls in November to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 16.8 °C against a yearly mean of 13.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to September.
Rain
1,186 mm in the median year at the habitat, 905 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 222 mm, driest month July at 10 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,034 mm to 1,403 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,190 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,186 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 42 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -3.5 °C, the absolute minimum -11.2 °C, 1,495 frost nights in 44 years, 34.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 0.1 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range -1.1 °C to 3.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.4 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 51 to 64% 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 +104 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
From few records: this habitat climate is read from 8 records in 6 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.
Habitat months, southern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 14 °C in Jun and Jul to 22 °C in Jan, Feb and Dec; mean nightly low from 0 °C in Jul to 12 °C in Jan and Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low. 1,186 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 6 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was -11.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 22 / 21–23 | 22 / 21–23 | 21 / 19–22 | 19 / 17–20 | 16 / 15–18 | 14 / 12–16 | 14 / 12–16 | 16 / 14–18 | 19 / 18–21 | 20 / 18–22 | 21 / 20–23 | 22 / 21–23 |
| Night °C | 12 / 11–14 | 12 / 11–14 | 10 / 9–13 | 7 / 6–10 | 4 / 2–7 | 1 / -1–4 | 0 / -1–4 | 2 / 1–5 | 5 / 4–8 | 8 / 7–10 | 10 / 9–12 | 11 / 10–13 |
| Rain mm | 222 / 196–308 | 208 / 181–260 | 155 / 134–176 | 62 / 51–76 | 18 / 16–22 | 13 / 12–16 | 10 / 9–14 | 31 / 16–35 | 41 / 27–44 | 106 / 71–116 | 140 / 118–151 | 180 / 157–243 |
| DLI | 41 / 39–42 | 38 / 38–39 | 35 / 34–36 | 31 / 30–34 | 27 / 26–30 | 24 / 23–27 | 26 / 25–28 | 30 / 29–34 | 36 / 35–39 | 37 / 37–41 | 41 / 40–42 | 42 / 40–43 |
| RH % | 64 / 61–65 | 64 / 62–65 | 62 / 60–64 | 58 / 57–60 | 54 / 54–56 | 52 / 52–55 | 51 / 51–54 | 52 / 51–54 | 53 / 52–54 | 58 / 56–60 | 60 / 58–61 | 62 / 59–63 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Sunčana Bradley, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (3).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Phygelius aequalis Cape Fuschia Photo: CC BY, Presha Soogrim
Watsonia lepida Lonesome Watsonia Photo: CC BY, Morten Ross
Bowkeria verticillata Natal Shellflower Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony Rebelo
Hypoxis baurii Red-star Photo: CC BY, Morten Ross
Moraea huttonii Gold Tulp Photo: CC0, author not stated
Zaluzianskya microsiphon Short-tube Drumsticks Photo: CC BY, Morten RossOther Scabiosa 19 in the reference
Scabiosa africana Cape scabious Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony Rebelo
Scabiosa bipinnata Caprifoliaceae Photo: CC BY, Виктория Билоус
Scabiosa canescens Fragrant scabious Photo: CC BY, Michael Andresek
Scabiosa cinerea Pyrenean Scabious Photo: CC0, author not stated
Scabiosa colchica Caprifoliaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz
Scabiosa columbaria Small scabious Photo: CC BY, Nans Scabiosa crinita Caprifoliaceae 
Scabiosa farinosa Caprifoliaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz
Scabiosa holosericea Caprifoliaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Scabiosa incisa Beach Scabious Photo: CC BY, Charleen Brunke
Scabiosa lachnophylla Wooly-leaf scabious Photo: CC BY, Igor' R.
Scabiosa lucida Shining scabious Photo: CC BY-SA, Juan Pablo Madriaga Núñez all 20 ›Names & registers
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -30.00_29.375, lapse-corrected +104 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rulescommons answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.