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Teucrium vesicarium; photograph (c) Nicolas Olejnik, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Nicolas Olejnik, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-01-23

Teucrium vesicarium Mill.

Lamiaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +26

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Teucrium vesicarium, photograph (c) Nicolas Olejnik, some rights reserved (CC BY)Teucrium vesicarium, photograph (c) Nicolas Olejnik, some rights reserved (CC BY)Teucrium vesicarium, photograph (c) Nicolas Olejnik, some rights reserved (CC BY)Teucrium vesicarium, photograph (c) Matias Cabezas, some rights reserved (CC BY)Teucrium vesicarium, photograph (c) pedrogarabaya, some rights reserved (CC BY)Teucrium vesicarium, photograph (c) pedrogarabaya, some rights reserved (CC BY) 62 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
18.5°C
Record low 15.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,728mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
24–40DLI
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 summers: the rain comes December to April (June to October at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Teucrium

Teucrium is a cosmopolitan genus of flowering plants in the mint family Lamiaceae, commonly known as germanders. Plants in this genus are perennial herbs or shrubs, with branches that are more or less square in cross-section, leaves arranged in opposite pairs, and flowers arranged in thyrses, the corolla with mostly white to cream-coloured, lobed petals.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,113 mm of 1,568 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.5 °C against a yearly mean of 23.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Rain

1,568 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,113 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 283 mm, driest month March at 42 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,143 mm to 2,555 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,728 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,568 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 40 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 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 18.5 °C, the absolute minimum 15.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.5 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 10.9 °C to 19.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.6 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.5 °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: 61 to 67% 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 +372 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Teucrium vesicarium through the yearWarmest month May, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 17.5 °C; 1,568 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, southern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°40°30.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER15.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 24–40RH 61–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 131 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 °C24 / 20–2825 / 22–3027 / 24–3229 / 25–3430 / 25–3429 / 23–3229 / 23–3229 / 23–3328 / 23–3127 / 22–3026 / 21–2924 / 20–28
Night °C18 / 11–2018 / 11–2119 / 12–2221 / 14–2323 / 15–2523 / 16–2522 / 15–2522 / 15–2522 / 15–2421 / 14–2320 / 13–2218 / 12–21
Rain mm55 / 33–12045 / 24–9042 / 22–9256 / 34–127110 / 74–206225 / 140–369206 / 121–385213 / 143–372283 / 193–420186 / 132–31587 / 57–19260 / 38–150
DLI25 / 22–3130 / 26–3536 / 32–3940 / 36–4340 / 37–4237 / 33–3937 / 34–4137 / 34–4032 / 30–3529 / 28–3227 / 24–3024 / 21–29
RH %65 / 60–6964 / 58–6861 / 56–6661 / 57–6663 / 58–6766 / 62–6965 / 61–7265 / 61–7167 / 64–7266 / 63–7165 / 61–7165 / 61–70

Records on both sides of the equator: the 100 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 131 cells that remain: the 126 at least 10° north and the 5 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 131 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (167 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is 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 1436:2053 (18.175, -77.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 15.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.4 °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 131 distinct grid cells holding 167 of the 335 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the northern side of the equator (126 cells poleward of 10° north, 100 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1436:2053 (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 18.00_-77.500, lapse-corrected +372 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 575 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay, Uruguay · introduced: Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Wallis-Futuna 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 marker-31.765, -60.824 · in the densest population, 228 records (39% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 580 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 167 of them in the land cells it reads, of 335 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 386 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6861 km away. 13 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 245 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 580 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Teucrium vesicarium, photograph 1did not loadTeucrium vesicarium, photograph 2did not loadTeucrium vesicarium, photograph 3did not loadTeucrium vesicarium, photograph 4did not loadTeucrium vesicarium, photograph 5did not loadTeucrium vesicarium, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Nicolas Olejnik, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Matias Cabezas, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) pedrogarabaya, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Quercus oleoides Quercus oleoides White oak Photo: CC0, author not statedGarcia nutans Garcia nutans False tungoiltree Photo: CC BY, Sinead GómezMaxillaria tenuifolia Maxillaria tenuifolia Coconut Orchid Photo: CC BY, jlsnaddonProtium copal Protium copal Burseraceae Photo: CC BY, Lon BrehmerBletia purpurea Bletia purpurea Pinepink Photo: CC BY, Tom FieldHeliotropium verdcourtii Heliotropium verdcourtii Heliotropiaceae Photo: CC BY, Scott Ward

Other Teucrium 54 in the reference

Teucrium abutiloides Teucrium abutiloides Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Vítor JorgeTeucrium arduini Teucrium arduini Lamiaceae Photo: CC0, Mirko UbovićTeucrium argutum Teucrium argutum Native Germander Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyTeucrium aroanium Teucrium aroanium Lamiaceae Photo: CC0, DaderotTeucrium asiaticum Teucrium asiaticum Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Yves BasTeucrium aureum Teucrium aureum Gold germander Photo: CC BY, jeanjacquesgodonTeucrium betonicum Teucrium betonicum Betony Photo: CC BY, Vítor JorgeTeucrium bicolor Teucrium bicolor Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Álvaro Ibaceta R.Teucrium botrys Teucrium botrys Cut-leaved germander Photo: CC BY, Vladimír Fuka Teucrium bracteatum Lamiaceae Teucrium canadense Teucrium canadense American germander Photo: CC BY, Courtney R.Teucrium capitatum Teucrium capitatum Felty Germander Photo: CC BY, L Rose all 55 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Teucrium hirtum; Teucrium inflatum; Teucrium mollifolium; Teucrium palustre; Teucrium picardae and 3 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
Mill.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +25
Wild records
580 in range · 386 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; 10 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (7 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 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 18.00_-77.500, lapse-corrected +372 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
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
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 57 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…