Species
+

Sonchus oleraceus L.

Apuruku, Archak, Common Sow-Thistle, Common Sowthistle

Climate known 68 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Sonchus oleraceus is a species of flowering plant in the tribe Cichorieae of the family Asteraceae, native to Europe and Western Asia. It has many common names including common sowthistle, sow thistle, smooth sow thistle, annual sow thistle, puha, hare's colwort, hare's thistle, milky tassel, milk thistle, and soft thistle.

Text from Wikipedia, “Sonchus oleraceus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

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.

Text from Wikipedia, “Sonchus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Great Britain +70
Wild records
477 in range· 200 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
839mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 88 mm (CHELSA)
Light
5–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (August to January, March and June in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 839 mm a year, wettest October at 88 mm, driest April at 54 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -3.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Carduus amplexicaulis Noronha; Hieracium oleraceum (L.) E.H.L.Krause; Hieracium oleraceum (L.) Scop.; Sonchus angustissimus H.Lindb., 1932; Sonchus asper Hall and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (August to January, March and June in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (604 mm of 839 mm) takes 8 months, August to January, March and June. Mean temperature moves 13.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: February to July, September and December.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 839 mm a year, wettest October at 88 mm, driest April at 54 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

839 mm a year at the habitat, 604 mm of it August to January, March and June. Wettest month October at 88 mm, driest April at 54 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 605 mm to 1281 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor -3.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -3.8 °C, the absolute minimum -8.6 °C, about 39 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.8 °C in February (across the envelope cells -2.1 °C to 8.8 °C), warmest day 22.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 7 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from 2 °C in Feb to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 839 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 361 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -8.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost28.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-8.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 5–36RH 60–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 361 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C7 / 4–147 / 5–1510 / 8–1713 / 11–1917 / 14–2320 / 17–2722 / 19–3022 / 19–3019 / 17–2614 / 13–2210 / 8–187 / 5–15
Night °C2 / -3–92 / -2–94 / 1–105 / 4–129 / 7–1512 / 10–1814 / 13–2114 / 12–2112 / 10–199 / 7–165 / 2–133 / -1–10
Rain mm76 / 52–11361 / 40–9064 / 44–9654 / 34–9560 / 26–11262 / 8–11160 / 3–10765 / 5–11174 / 26–10788 / 57–12388 / 60–13187 / 56–135
DLI6 / 5–1711 / 9–2318 / 16–3229 / 26–3934 / 32–4436 / 33–4836 / 32–4830 / 27–4421 / 18–3513 / 11–257 / 5–185 / 3–14
RH %66 / 59–6964 / 58–6662 / 57–6561 / 57–6360 / 57–6360 / 56–6360 / 55–6461 / 56–6463 / 57–6464 / 60–6666 / 60–6867 / 60–70

Each figure is the median across the 361 grid cells holding the 473 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 770:3596 (51.475, -0.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -8.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 361 distinct grid cells holding the 473 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 770:3596 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 51.50_0.000, lapse-corrected -63 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 10 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Madeira, Selvagens, Burkina, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey, Gulf States, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen· introduced: Guinea, Cameroon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Rodrigues, Altay, Buryatiya, Chita, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, Amur, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Primorye, Sakhalin, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, China South-Central, Hainan, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, Qinghai, China Southeast, Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Kazan-retto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Myanmar, South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Cocos (Keeling) I., Jawa, Malaya, Philippines, Christmas I., New Guinea, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, Antipodean Is., Chatham Is., New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Fiji, Niue, New Caledonia, Tonga, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Line Is., Marquesas, Pitcairn Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marcus I., Marianas, Marshall Is., Wake I., Hawaii, Newfoundland, Oregon, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, Texas, Maryland, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Chile Central, Paraguay, Uruguay, Falkland Is., South Georgia, Tristan da Cunha
Kew's description“annual or biennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker53.339, -1.473 · in the densest population, 168 records (35% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 477 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 200 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 22 km away. 270 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 4 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 477 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Sonchus oleraceusSonchus oleraceusSonchus oleraceusSonchus oleraceusSonchus oleraceusSonchus oleraceusSonchus oleraceusSonchus oleraceus

Photographs: (c) Gavin Slater, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Sonchus oleraceus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Wild food plants used on the Dubrovnik coast (south-eastern Croatia)
Katija Dolina, Łukasz Łuczaj (2014) · Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae
Estimation of base temperatures for nine weed species
Scott Steinmaus, Timothy S. Prather, Jodie S. Holt (2000) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Wild food plants used in the villages of the Lake Vrana Nature Park (northern Dalmatia, Croatia)
Łukasz Łuczaj, Norma Fressel, S.M. Perkovic (2013) · Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae
Radical scavenging and iron-chelating activities of some greens used as traditional dishes in Mediterranean diet
Sedef Nehir El, Sibel Karakaya (2003) · International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition
Root system size and precision in nutrient foraging: responses to spatial pattern of nutrient supply in six herbaceous species
Dushyantha K. Wijesinghe, Elizabeth John, Simone Beurskens, Michael J. Hutchings (2001) · Journal of Ecology
How nutritionally imbalanced is phloem sap for aphids?
Jonas Sandström, Nancy A. Moran (1999) · Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata
Surtos populacionais de Bemisia tabaci no estado de São Paulo
André Luiz Lourenção, Hiroshi Nagai (1994) · Bragantia
Allelopathic effect of some essential oils and components on germination of weed species
Sebile Azırak, Şengül Karaman (2007) · Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica Section B - Soil & Plant Science
Wild vegetable mixes sold in the markets of Dalmatia (southern Croatia)
Łukasz Łuczaj, Marijana Zovko Končić, Tihomir Miličević, Katija Dolina (2013) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
The Puzzle of Phloem Pressure
Robert Turgeon (2010) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Plant-Mediated Interactions Between Two Spatially Separated Insects
G. J. Masters, V. K. Brown (1992) · Functional Ecology

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.