Species
+

Verbesina virginica L.

Virginia crownbeard, Virginia crownbeard, frostweed, hetutvpe

Climate known 87 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

Verbesina virginica, known by the common names white crownbeard, or frostweed is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to the Southeastern United States, where it is found in calcareous soil, often in bottomland thickets and edges of woods.

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

About the genus · Verbesina

Verbesina, many species of which have crownbeard as part of their common names, is a genus of flowering plants, in the family Asteraceae. It is a large genus of about 350 species.

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

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Illinois, Kansas, Missouri +17
Wild records
1842 in range· 357 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Aug, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1089mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 115 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–41DLI
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 (March to July and September to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1089 mm a year, wettest June at 115 mm, driest January at 67 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -5.1 °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 Phaethusa laciniata (A.Gray) Small; Phaethusa virginica (L.) Britton; Siegesbeckia laciniata Poir.; Sigesbeckia laciniata Poir.; Verbesina laciniata Nutt. and 7 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to July and September to November 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 (789 mm of 1089 mm) takes 8 months, March to July and September to November. Mean temperature moves 18.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to January and March to May.

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 1089 mm a year, wettest June at 115 mm, driest January at 67 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1089 mm a year at the habitat, 789 mm of it March to July and September to November. Wettest month June at 115 mm, driest January at 67 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 874 mm to 1460 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: 17 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 41 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

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 -5.1 °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 -5.1 °C, the absolute minimum -16.9 °C, about 25 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -1.2 °C to 11.5 °C), warmest day 32.3 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.1 °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: 56 to 59% 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 15 °C in Jan to 32 °C in Aug; mean night from 5 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1089 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1071 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -16.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost41.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-16.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 17–41RH 56–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1071 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 °C15 / 8–1917 / 10–2121 / 15–2325 / 20–2728 / 24–3031 / 29–3232 / 30–3432 / 30–3530 / 27–3125 / 21–2720 / 14–2416 / 8–21
Night °C5 / -1–127 / 1–1310 / 5–1514 / 9–1719 / 15–2122 / 19–2423 / 21–2524 / 21–2521 / 17–2316 / 11–2010 / 6–166 / 0–13
Rain mm67 / 46–12975 / 52–13696 / 67–13183 / 60–119114 / 82–143115 / 103–180103 / 54–17483 / 51–19391 / 75–175103 / 79–13284 / 56–12275 / 50–136
DLI18 / 15–2123 / 20–2629 / 27–3235 / 34–3938 / 37–4140 / 39–4141 / 38–4438 / 35–4132 / 30–3426 / 23–2720 / 16–2217 / 13–19
RH %58 / 57–5958 / 56–5957 / 56–5956 / 55–5959 / 57–6159 / 58–6359 / 55–6358 / 54–6458 / 55–6357 / 56–6058 / 57–5959 / 57–60

Each figure is the median across the 1071 grid cells holding the 1749 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 1166:1653 (31.675, -97.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -16.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.7 °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 1071 distinct grid cells holding the 1749 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1166:1653 (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 31.50_-97.500, lapse-corrected -49 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 183 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.
NativeIllinois, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Ohio, West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia· introduced: Jawa
Kew's description“temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker30.281, -97.747 · in the densest population, 659 records (36% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1842 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 357 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 27 km away. 3 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 93 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 1842 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Verbesina virginicaVerbesina virginicaVerbesina virginicaVerbesina virginicaVerbesina virginicaVerbesina virginicaVerbesina virginicaVerbesina virginica

Photographs: (c) Hill Craddock, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Samuel A Schmid, PhD, PWS, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Differential effects of two dominant plant species on community structure and invasibility in an old-field ecosystem
Lara Souza, Jake F. Weltzin, Nathan J. Sanders (2010) · Journal of Plant Ecology
Texas Native Plants Yield Compounds with Cytotoxic Activities against Prostate Cancer Cells
Corena V. Shaffer, Shengxin Cai, Jiangnan Peng, Andrew J. Robles (2016) · Journal of Natural Products
Two new eudesmane derivatives from Verbesina virginica
Wenhui Xu, Qian Liang, Zong Suo Liang, Xing Cong Li (2010) · Chinese Chemical Letters
Verbesinosides A−F, 15,27-Cyclooleanane Saponins from the American Native Plant Verbesina virginica
Wenhui Xu, Melissa R. Jacob, Ameeta K. Agarwal, Alice M. Clark (2009) · Journal of Natural Products
TAXONOMY OF THE VERBESINA VIRGINICA COMPLEX (ASTERACEAE)
John Elmerdahl Olsen (1979) · Biodiversity Heritage Library (Smithsonian Institution)
Chemical Analysis of the Defensive Scent Fluid Released by Hypselonotus punctiventris (Hemiptera: Coreidae)
Bro. Thomas McCullough (1971) · Annals of the Entomological Society of America
Vegetative Survey of Martha's Meadow, an Open Limestone Habitat in Northwestern Georgia
Martin L. Cipollini, Maya Strahl, Nicole Soper Gorden, Patricia Short Tomlinson (2013) · Southeastern Naturalist
RESTORATION OF FORMER GRASSLAND IN SOUTH-CENTRAL TEXAS
Wendy J. Leonard, O. W. Van Auken (2019) · Texas Journal of Science
Distribution of Verbesina virginica (Asteraceae, Frost Weed) in central Texas and possible causes.
James Gagliardi, O. W. Van Auken (2010) · Texas Journal of 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 Verbesina 2 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 answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
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 38 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.