Species
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Syringa josikaea J.Jacq. ex Rchb.

Deep-flowered German Lilac, Hungarian Lilac, Hungarian lilac

Climate known 24 photographs
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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

Syringa josikaea, the Hungarian lilac, or Lady Josika's lilac is a species of lilac in the olive family Oleaceae, native to central and eastern Europe, in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania and western Ukraine. A large shrub, it has a very restricted range, although fossils assigned to the species suggest a much wider prehistoric distribution in central Europe. Today it is threatened in the wild by habitat destruction, but is also commonly used in gardening.

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

About the genus · Syringa

Syringa is a genus of 12 currently recognized species of flowering woody plants in the olive family known colloquially as lilacs. They are native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and widely and commonly cultivated in temperate areas elsewhere.

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

Family
Oleaceae
Described by
J.Jacq. ex Rchb.
Native to
Romania, Ukraine
Wild records
46 in range· 41 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
818mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 103 mm (CHELSA)
Light
5–34DLI
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: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 818 mm a year, wettest July at 103 mm, driest February at 43 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -17.8 °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 Syringa josikaea f. eximia (Olbrich) Schelle; Syringa josikaea var. eximia Olbrich; Syringa josikaea var. zabelii Beissn. et al.; Syringa josikaea var. zabelii Schelle; Syringa vincetoxifolia Baumg. and 2 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (576 mm of 818 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 13.7 °C against a yearly mean of 7.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to April.

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 818 mm a year, wettest July at 103 mm, driest February at 43 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

818 mm a year at the habitat, 576 mm of it April to October. Wettest month July at 103 mm, driest February at 43 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 558 mm to 1206 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 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 34 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 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

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 -17.8 °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 -17.8 °C, the absolute minimum -26.9 °C, about 137 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -7.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells -8.9 °C to -5.3 °C), warmest day 22.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -17.8 °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: 59 to 69% 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 -2 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from -7 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 818 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 34 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -26.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost31.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-26.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 5–34RH 59–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 34 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 °C-2 / -3–1-1 / -2–25 / 3–713 / 10–1418 / 15–2120 / 18–2422 / 20–2722 / 19–2617 / 15–2111 / 10–144 / 3–7-1 / -1–2
Night °C-7 / -9–-5-7 / -8–-5-3 / -5–-13 / 0–58 / 6–1112 / 9–1414 / 11–1713 / 11–169 / 7–124 / 2–6-1 / -3–1-6 / -7–-4
Rain mm46 / 33–8043 / 32–6846 / 35–7359 / 39–8092 / 49–121102 / 74–140103 / 65–14287 / 48–11875 / 53–11258 / 39–9454 / 43–8853 / 40–96
DLI7 / 6–812 / 11–1320 / 18–2128 / 27–2933 / 32–3634 / 33–3734 / 32–3730 / 29–3321 / 20–2313 / 12–167 / 6–95 / 4–6
RH %69 / 66–7167 / 64–6963 / 61–6559 / 57–6160 / 55–6261 / 57–6462 / 56–6461 / 55–6463 / 57–6664 / 60–6767 / 65–6969 / 66–71

Each figure is the median across the 34 grid cells holding the 42 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 827:4061 (48.625, 23.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -26.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -17.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.4 °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 34 distinct grid cells holding the 42 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 827:4061 (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 48.50_23.125, lapse-corrected -59 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 483 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.
NativeRomania, Ukraine· introduced: Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, Altay
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker48.727, 23.042 · in the densest population, 32 records (70% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 46 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 41 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 1203 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 of the 46 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Syringa josikaeaSyringa josikaeaSyringa josikaeaSyringa josikaeaSyringa josikaeaSyringa josikaeaSyringa josikaeaSyringa josikaea

Photographs: Urgamal Magsar, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (4); Doris Pajumäe, CC BY-SA, via GBIF (2); Tom Norton, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist 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 Syringa josikaea, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Phylogeography of Syringa josikaea (Oleaceae): Early Pleistocene divergence from East Asian relatives and survival in small populations in the Carpathians
Bertalan Lendvay, Joachim W. Kadereit, Erik Westberg, Carolina Cornejo (2015) · Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
The tree vegetation of the Kherson State Agrarian University Arboretum
Тетяна Бойко, Ольга Дементьєва (2018) · Ukrainian Journal of Ecology
Characterization of Nuclear Microsatellite Markers for the Narrow Endemic Syringa josikaea Jacq. fil. ex Rchb.
Bertalan Lendvay, A. Pedryc, Mária Höhn (2013) · Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca
Tracking the movement of PIT-tagged terrestrial slugs (Arion vulgaris) in forest and garden habitats using mobile antennas
Daniel Nyqvist, Filippa Hedenberg, Olle Calles, Martin Österling (2019) · Journal of Molluscan Studies
Patterns of Natural Regeneration of Alien Species of Woody Plants in Novosibirsk
L. N. Chindyaeva, A. P. Belanova, T. I. Kiseleva (2018) · Russian Journal of Biological Invasions
In vitro conservation of certain endangered and rare species of Romanian spontaneous flora.
Vasile Laslo, M. Zăpârţan, E. Agud (2011) · Analele Universităţii din Oradea, Fascicula: Protecţia Mediului
Introduction of a Protected Species Hungarian Lilac (Syringa josikaea Jacg.) in the South Ural
N. V. Polyakova (2021) · UNIVERSITY NEWS NORTH-CAUCASIAN REGION NATURAL SCIENCES SERIES
Vascular Plants of the Town of Belomorsk, Republic of Karelia
Алексей Васильевич Кравченко, В. В. Тимофеева, Оксана Алексеевна Рудковская, Маргарита Анатольевна Фадеева (2016) · Proceedings of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Analysis of the ecological state of urban green spaces in the Medeu district of Almaty
Gulbanu Sadyrova, A. Tanybayeva, T. Bazarbaeva, G. Mukanova (2023) · BULLETIN of the L N Gumilyov Eurasian National University Chemistry Geography Ecology Series
Assessment of deciduous trees introduction prospect in the taiga zone (Karelia)
И. Т. Кищенко (2019) · Arctic Environmental Research
Plants species for ecological landscaping in urban territory in Central Siberia
Г А Демиденко, В В Келер, N V Kriger, Igor A. Shadrin (2019) · IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science

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.

Other Syringa 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 24 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; 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 98 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.