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Sonchus bulbosus; photograph Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAJosep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sonchus bulbosus (L.) N.Kilian & Greuter

Asteraceae · Ireland, Baleares +24

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

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Sow seed
Sonchus bulbosus, photograph Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsSonchus bulbosus, photograph Stefan.lefnaer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsSonchus bulbosus, photograph Stefan.lefnaer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsSonchus bulbosus, photograph Stefan.lefnaer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsSonchus bulbosus, photograph Stefan.lefnaer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsSonchus bulbosus, photograph Stefan.lefnaer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-0.8°C
Record low -5.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
713mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
11–46DLI
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 February and April, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Sonchus bulbosus, the tuberous hawk's-beard, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is a tuberous geophyte native to the Mediterranean basin countries of southern Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa, as well as the Azores (Terceira) and Ireland.

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

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 (540 mm of 721 mm) falls in September to February and April, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 13.0 °C against a yearly mean of 15.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to August and October.

Rain

721 mm in the median year at the habitat, 540 mm of it September to February and April. Wettest month October at 95 mm, driest month July at 14 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 553 mm to 1,028 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 713 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 721 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: 11 to 46 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 9, 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 -0.8 °C, the absolute minimum -5.7 °C, 283 frost nights in 44 years, 6.4 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 5.6 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 2.6 °C to 9.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.2 °C in July and August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.8 °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: 57 to 61% 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 +61 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 bulbosus through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 5.6 °C; 721 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°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost40.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-5.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 11–46RH 57–61%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 635 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 °C11 / 9–1412 / 10–1514 / 13–1817 / 14–2020 / 18–2324 / 21–2727 / 23–3027 / 23–3024 / 21–2720 / 18–2315 / 13–1812 / 10–15
Night °C6 / 3–106 / 3–108 / 5–1110 / 7–1313 / 11–1616 / 14–1919 / 16–2219 / 17–2317 / 14–2014 / 11–1710 / 7–147 / 4–11
Rain mm75 / 48–12861 / 39–10452 / 36–8064 / 46–9854 / 31–7632 / 10–5114 / 3–4429 / 5–4765 / 30–9895 / 69–13691 / 65–14389 / 55–146
DLI13 / 10–1719 / 16–2328 / 24–3235 / 32–3941 / 37–4445 / 41–4946 / 40–4940 / 35–4430 / 27–3520 / 18–2514 / 12–1811 / 9–14
RH %61 / 58–6560 / 57–6358 / 55–6158 / 55–6259 / 56–6357 / 54–6357 / 53–6458 / 54–6359 / 57–6261 / 58–6361 / 58–6461 / 58–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 635 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (848 records in those cells; 93 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 1060:3489 (36.975, -5.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -5.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.1 °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 635 distinct grid cells holding 848 of the 959 in-range records (93 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1060:3489 (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 37.00_-5.625, lapse-corrected +61 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 304 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: 3143051 (Aetheorhiza bulbosa (L.) Cass., 1944 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeIreland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey · 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 marker43.032, 3.047 · in the densest population, 316 records (30% of those in range)
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1056 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 848 of them in the land cells it reads, of 959 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 648 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 14 km away. 5 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 97 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 3143051 (Aetheorhiza bulbosa (L.) Cass.): Kew's file holds it as Aetheorhiza bulbosa (L.) Cass. (synonym under Sonchus bulbosus (L.) N.Kilian & Greuter); 1,944 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 1056 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 bulbosus, photograph 1did not loadSonchus bulbosus, photograph 2did not loadSonchus bulbosus, photograph 3did not loadSonchus bulbosus, photograph 4did not loadSonchus bulbosus, photograph 5did not loadSonchus bulbosus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Stefan.lefnaer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (5).

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

Centaurium tenuiflorum Centaurium tenuiflorum Slender centaury Photo: CC0, author not statedSmilax aspera Smilax aspera Common smilax Photo: CC BY-SA, Pere Barnola Lathyrus articulatus Fabaceae Romulea ramiflora Romulea ramiflora Branch Froetang Photo: CC BY, Noé Fleury FrouartAllium chamaemoly Allium chamaemoly Dwarf garlic Photo: CC BY, Joan SimonBorago officinalis Borago officinalis Borage Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinha

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 brachylobus Sonchus brachylobus Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, fmunozSonchus brassicifolius Sonchus brassicifolius Cabbage tree Photo: CC BY, Flavien SaboureauSonchus 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 Hieracium bulbosum; Leontodon bulbosus; Prenanthes bulbosa; Taraxacum bulbosum; Aetheorhiza bulbosa and 4 more. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
(L.) N.Kilian & Greuter
Native to
Ireland, Baleares, Corse +23
Wild records
1056 in range · 648 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 Sonchus bulbosus (L.) N.Kilian & Greuter (plant_name_id 3062456), 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; 1944 records of GBIF's key 3143051, Aetheorhiza bulbosa (L.) Cass. (Kew's file holds it as Aetheorhiza bulbosa (L.) Cass. (synonym under Sonchus bulbosus (L.) N.Kilian & Greuter)): the GBIF download; 6 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 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 37.00_-5.625, lapse-corrected +61 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 50426438-2, POWO 50426438-2
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 110 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…