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Sonchus ustulatus; photograph (c) Viktor, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Viktor, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2023-12-16

Sonchus ustulatus Lowe

Asteraceae · Madeira

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Sow seed
Sonchus ustulatus, photograph (c) Vítor Jorge, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sonchus ustulatus, photograph (c) Vítor Jorge, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sonchus ustulatus, photograph (c) Vítor Jorge, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sonchus ustulatus, photograph (c) Vítor Jorge, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sonchus ustulatus, photograph (c) Vítor Jorge, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sonchus ustulatus, photograph (c) Vítor Jorge, some rights reserved (CC BY) 79 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
13.4°C
Feb at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
23°C
Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,867mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
17–47DLI
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 October 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.

Summary

Sonchus ustulatus, also known as a leituga, is a species of herb in the Asteraceae family. It is endemic to Madeira, an island group in the Atlantic which is politically part of Portugal. It grows to be around 0.2 meters.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Sonchus ustulatus", 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 (1,451 mm of 1,891 mm) falls in October to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 16.5 °C against a yearly mean of 17.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Rain

1,891 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,451 mm of it October to March. Wettest month December at 329 mm, driest month July at 15 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,421 mm to 2,468 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,867 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,891 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: 17 to 47 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 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 13.4 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 10.8 °C to 14.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.9 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 13.4 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, February, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 63% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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 ustulatus through the yearWarmest months August and September, mean daily high 23 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 13.4 °C; 1,891 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 17–47RH 62–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 28 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C16 / 14–1716 / 13–1717 / 14–1717 / 15–1818 / 16–1920 / 19–2122 / 21–2323 / 22–2423 / 21–2321 / 19–2219 / 16–2017 / 14–18
Night °C14 / 11–1513 / 11–1514 / 11–1514 / 12–1515 / 13–1617 / 16–1819 / 18–1920 / 19–2120 / 18–2118 / 16–2017 / 14–1815 / 12–17
Rain mm218 / 169–290225 / 175–294194 / 139–251157 / 110–21194 / 64–11948 / 34–5815 / 11–2121 / 16–27105 / 80–127220 / 170–286265 / 204–354329 / 249–445
DLI19 / 16–2124 / 22–2732 / 30–3538 / 36–4043 / 42–4445 / 45–4647 / 46–4743 / 41–4435 / 33–3726 / 24–2920 / 17–2317 / 14–19
RH %62 / 59–6563 / 60–6562 / 60–6463 / 58–6563 / 59–6563 / 60–6562 / 59–6563 / 60–6563 / 60–6663 / 60–6763 / 60–6563 / 60–67

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 12% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 9.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 25.0 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 28 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (109 records in those cells; 2 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 1146:3258 (32.675, -17.075). 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 28 distinct grid cells holding 109 of the 111 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1146:3258 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 12% land and none of the 11 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.50_-16.875, lapse-corrected +103 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 231 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.
NativeMadeira · 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 marker32.67, -16.962 · in the densest population, 116 records (100% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 116 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 109 of them in the land cells it reads, of 111 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 82 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 6 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 5 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 116 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 ustulatus, photograph 1did not loadSonchus ustulatus, photograph 2did not loadSonchus ustulatus, photograph 3did not loadSonchus ustulatus, photograph 4did not loadSonchus ustulatus, photograph 5did not loadSonchus ustulatus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Vítor Jorge, 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.

Matthiola maderensis Matthiola maderensis Brassicaceae Photo: CC BY, Rob FelixEchium nervosum Echium nervosum Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY, Rob FelixEuphorbia piscatoria Euphorbia piscatoria Fish-stunning Spurge Photo: CC BY, Vítor JorgeSedum nudum Sedum nudum Crassulaceae Photo: CC BY, Vítor JorgeSinapidendron angustifolium Sinapidendron angustifolium Brassicaceae Photo: CC BY, Vítor JorgeSideroxylon mirmulano Sideroxylon mirmulano Ironwood Photo: CC BY, Vítor Jorge

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 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 Barkla all 24 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
Lowe
Native to
Madeira
Wild records
116 in range · 82 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 2026-10-22
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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.50_-16.875, lapse-corrected +103 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (12% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 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
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 13 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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