Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Sonchus brachylobus; photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2022-04-01

Sonchus brachylobus Webb

Asteraceae · Canary Is.

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Sonchus brachylobus Webb: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Webb & Berthel.

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Sonchus brachylobus, photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sonchus brachylobus, photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sonchus brachylobus, photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sonchus brachylobus, photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sonchus brachylobus, photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sonchus brachylobus, photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) 15 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
14.0°C
Record low 11.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
24°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
330mm
6 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
21–48DLI
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 winters: the rain comes November to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Sonchus

Sonchus is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Cichorieae within the family Asteraceae and are commonly known as sow thistles. Sowthistles are annual, biennial or perennial herbs, with or without rhizomes and a few are even woody.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (258 mm of 335 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 16.8 °C against a yearly mean of 18.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

335 mm in the median year at the habitat, 258 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 72 mm, driest month July at 2 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 291 mm to 407 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 330 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 335 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: 21 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 49).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 14.0 °C, the absolute minimum 11.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 24.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 14.1 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 12.0 °C to 15.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.1 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.0 °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: 59 to 62% 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 +186 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Sonchus brachylobus through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 24 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 14.1 °C; 335 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.10°15°20°25°30°24.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER11.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 21–48RH 59–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 13 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 °C18 / 15–1818 / 16–1819 / 17–1919 / 17–1920 / 19–2022 / 21–2223 / 22–2424 / 23–2523 / 23–2423 / 21–2321 / 19–2119 / 16–20
Night °C14 / 12–1614 / 12–1515 / 13–1615 / 13–1616 / 14–1717 / 17–1818 / 18–1920 / 19–2020 / 19–2019 / 17–2017 / 15–1916 / 13–17
Rain mm50 / 42–5953 / 46–6533 / 29–4118 / 14–217 / 5–93 / 2–42 / 1–33 / 2–312 / 10–1532 / 26–3750 / 46–6572 / 57–85
DLI23 / 21–2529 / 28–3137 / 36–3943 / 42–4447 / 46–4748 / 48–4947 / 46–4844 / 43–4538 / 37–4031 / 30–3324 / 23–2621 / 19–23
RH %60 / 58–6261 / 59–6359 / 58–6261 / 59–6461 / 60–6562 / 60–6661 / 56–6662 / 57–6662 / 60–6662 / 61–6561 / 59–6361 / 60–63
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 13 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (25 records in those cells; 4 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 1239:3284 (28.025, -15.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 24.9 °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 13 distinct grid cells holding 25 of the 30 in-range records (4 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1239:3284 (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 28.00_-15.625, lapse-corrected +186 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 295 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.
NativeCanary Is. · 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 marker28.133, -15.6 · in the densest population, 33 records (97% of those in range)
Kew's description“subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 34 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 25 of them in the land cells it reads, of 30 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 4 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 9 km away. 4 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 of the 34 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Sonchus brachylobus, photograph 1did not loadSonchus brachylobus, photograph 2did not loadSonchus brachylobus, photograph 3did not loadSonchus brachylobus, photograph 4did not loadSonchus brachylobus, photograph 5did not loadSonchus brachylobus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

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

Descurainia artemisioides Descurainia artemisioides Brassicaceae Photo: CC BY, Daniel CahenAsparagus pastorianus Asparagus pastorianus Hook-thorn Asparagus Photo: CC BY, jeanjacquesgodonAsparagus arborescens Asparagus arborescens Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY, Juan RodríguezCeropegia fusca Ceropegia fusca Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY, Christoph MoningLimonium sventenii Limonium sventenii Plumbaginaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Martin LindnerCneorum pulverulentum Cneorum pulverulentum Rutaceae Photo: CC BY, fmunoz

Other Sonchus 23 in the reference

Sonchus acaulis Sonchus acaulis Giant dandelion Photo: CC BY, Rosario DouglasSonchus arvensis Sonchus arvensis Perennial sow-thistle Photo: CC0, author not statedSonchus asper Sonchus asper Spiny sow-thistle Photo: CC BY, 振远 王Sonchus brassicifolius Sonchus brassicifolius Cabbage tree Photo: CC BY, Flavien SaboureauSonchus bulbosus Sonchus bulbosus Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Josep GestiSonchus canariensis Sonchus canariensis Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Vítor JorgeSonchus congestus Sonchus congestus Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Elizabete Marchante Sonchus crassifolius Asteraceae Sonchus fruticosus Sonchus fruticosus Shrubby Sow-thistle Photo: CC BY, Vítor JorgeSonchus hierrensis Sonchus hierrensis Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Daniel Heras GonzálezSonchus kirkii Sonchus kirkii New Zealand sow thistle Photo: CC BY, John BarklaSonchus leptocephalus Sonchus leptocephalus Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, jeanjacquesgodon all 24 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Sonchus brachylobus f. brachylobus; Sonchus brachylobus f. spathulatus; Sonchus brachylobus subsp. canariae; Sonchus brachylobus var. brachylobus; Sonchus brachylobus var. canariae and 2 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
Webb
Native to
Canary Is.
Wild records
34 in range · 4 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 2026-10-22GBIF's key 7599625 is Sonchus brachylobus Webb & Berthel.; the page links Kew's Sonchus brachylobus Webb, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 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 28.00_-15.625, lapse-corrected +186 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 250047-1 is Kew's for Sonchus brachylobus Webb
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 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
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 9 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…