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Sida petrophila; photograph Mark Marathon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAMark Marathon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sida petrophila F.Muell.

Malvaceae · New South Wales, Northern Territory +3

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

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Sida petrophila, photograph Mark Marathon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsSida petrophila, photograph Mark Marathon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsSida petrophila, photograph Mark Marathon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 4 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
0.5°C
Record low -2.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
33°C
Jan at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
243mm
No month of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
18–51DLI
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

Sida petrophila, commonly known as rock sida, is a flowering plant in the family Malvaceae and grows in all mainland states of Australia with the exception of Victoria and the Northern Territory. It is an upright perennial with leaves arranged alternately and yellow flowers.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Sida petrophila", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (178 mm of 244 mm) takes 8 months, November to February, May to July and September. Mean temperature moves 16.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to January, March and May to August.

Rain

244 mm in the median year at the habitat, 178 mm of it November to February, May to July and September. Wettest month December at 24 mm, driest month April at 12 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 182 mm to 397 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 243 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 244 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: 18 to 51 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 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 0.5 °C, the absolute minimum -2.7 °C, 88 frost nights in 44 years, 2.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 5.5 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 4.3 °C to 6.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 32.7 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.5 °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: 43 to 57% 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 +90 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Sida petrophila through the yearWarmest month January, mean daily high 33 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 5.5 °C; 244 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, southern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost42.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-2.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter01020304050mm rainDLI 18–51RH 43–57%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 884 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 °C33 / 29–3532 / 29–3429 / 26–3124 / 22–2619 / 17–2115 / 14–1715 / 13–1717 / 15–1921 / 19–2425 / 22–2728 / 25–3131 / 27–33
Night °C20 / 17–2320 / 17–2217 / 14–1913 / 11–159 / 8–117 / 5–86 / 4–77 / 5–89 / 8–1112 / 10–1416 / 13–1818 / 15–21
Rain mm22 / 16–2723 / 18–2917 / 14–2712 / 9–2622 / 15–3522 / 13–4322 / 13–4217 / 8–3920 / 12–3620 / 15–3323 / 17–3324 / 20–33
DLI51 / 50–5247 / 45–4740 / 37–4131 / 28–3222 / 19–2418 / 16–2019 / 17–2125 / 22–2735 / 31–3743 / 40–4448 / 46–4951 / 49–51
RH %43 / 41–5045 / 43–5046 / 44–5249 / 47–5354 / 51–5757 / 54–6056 / 53–5952 / 49–5649 / 46–5446 / 44–5245 / 43–5044 / 42–50
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 884 grid cells holding the 1613 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 2439:6428 (-31.975, 141.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -2.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.2 °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 884 distinct grid cells holding 1613 of the 1613 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2439:6428 (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 -32.00_141.250, lapse-corrected +90 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 293 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 key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 5617830 (Sida petrophila F.Muell., 2000 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeNew South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia · 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 marker-30.978, 138.867 · in the densest population, 949 records (55% of those in range)
Kew's description“desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1730 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1613 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1643 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 10 km away. 117 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 5617830 (Sida petrophila F.Muell.): Kew's file holds it as Sida petrophila F.Muell. (accepted); 2,000 records, from GBIF's download.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1730 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Sida petrophila, photograph 1did not loadSida petrophila, photograph 2did not loadSida petrophila, photograph 3did not load

Photographs: Mark Marathon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (3).

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

Dissocarpus paradoxus Dissocarpus paradoxus Bur-saltbush Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandBrachyscome ciliaris Brachyscome ciliaris Variable Daisy Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandChenopodium spinescens Chenopodium spinescens Berry-saltbush Photo: CC BY, Kym NicolsonEremophila alternifolia Eremophila alternifolia Narrow-leaved Emu Bush Photo: CC0, author not statedDodonaea lobulata Dodonaea lobulata Lobe-leaf hopbush Photo: CC BY, Daniel FalsterEucalyptus gillii Eucalyptus gillii Curly mallee Photo: CC BY, Em Lamond

Other Sida 12 in the reference

Sida abutilifolia Sida abutilifolia Spreading fanpetals Photo: CC BY, Sam KieschnickSida acuta Sida acuta Common wireweed Photo: CC BY, Raja Sekhar ChimiralaSida ciliaris Sida ciliaris Bracted fanpetals Photo: CC0, author not statedSida cordata Sida cordata Heartleaf fanpetals Photo: CC BY, Krzysztof ZiarnekSida cordifolia Sida cordifolia Country mallow Photo: CC BY, AparnaSida fallax Sida fallax Yellow `ilima Photo: CC0, author not statedSida planicaulis Sida planicaulis Flatstem sida Photo: CC BY, Mark RichmanSida poeppigiana Sida poeppigiana Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Eric SchmidtSida rhombifolia Sida rhombifolia Queensland-hemp Photo: CC0, author not statedSida spinosa Sida spinosa Prickly mallow Photo: CC0, author not statedSida subcordata Sida subcordata Subcordate Sida Photo: CC BY, Ian CowieSida ulmifolia Sida ulmifolia Broom weed Photo: CC BY, Aidan Fern

Names & registers

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
F.Muell.
Native to
New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland +2
Wild records
1730 in range · 1643 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 Sida petrophila F.Muell. (plant_name_id 2601791), 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 answeredas of 2026-10-21this 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 5617830, Sida petrophila F.Muell. (Kew's file holds it as Sida petrophila F.Muell. (accepted)): the GBIF download; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 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 -32.00_141.250, lapse-corrected +90 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 564061-1, POWO 564061-1
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 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 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 26 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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