Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.

Veronica missurica Raf.

Plantaginaceae · Idaho, Montana +3

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

Photographs not checked iNaturalist and GBIF media were skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-19.0°C
Record low -34.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
979mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
9–49DLI
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 November to May, with nights below freezing; no growing season read. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Veronica missurica (syn. Synthyris missurica) is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae known by the common names tailed kittentails, mountain kittentails, or Columbia kittentails. It is native to the Pacific Northwest of the United States, where it grows in moist areas in forests and other mountain and foothill habitat types. It is often one of the first wildflowers to bloom in its mountain habitat, sometimes coming up before the snow is melted. It is a rhizomatous perennial herb with a rosette of basal leaves with toothed, rounded blades borne on petioles. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Veronica missurica", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season and no growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (701 mm of 964 mm) falls in November to May, the cooler part of the year, but the mean nightly low is below freezing in February, March, April, May, December and January, so the rule reads no growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to November.

Rain

964 mm in the median year at the habitat, 701 mm of it November to May. Wettest month November at 119 mm, driest month August at 32 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 585 mm to 1,603 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 979 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 964 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: 9 to 49 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 7, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -19.0 °C, the absolute minimum -34.3 °C, 6,529 frost nights in 44 years, 148.4 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -8.2 °C in December (across the grid cells of the range -12.1 °C to -4.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.9 °C in July and August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -19.0 °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: 47 to 62% 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 -714 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Veronica missurica through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month December, mean nightly low -8.2 °C; 964 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, northern hemisphere.-40°-20°0°20°40°frost36.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-34.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 9–49RH 47–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 211 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 °C0 / -3–32 / -1–66 / 2–1010 / 6–1415 / 12–1819 / 17–2325 / 23–2825 / 23–2920 / 17–2313 / 10–164 / 1–7-1 / -4–2
Night °C-7 / -11–-4-7 / -10–-3-4 / -7–0-2 / -5–22 / -1–66 / 4–1010 / 8–1410 / 8–146 / 3–101 / -2–5-5 / -8–-1-8 / -12–-5
Rain mm108 / 53–20085 / 44–15194 / 56–15687 / 59–12397 / 62–13282 / 43–12233 / 15–5332 / 16–4945 / 26–7571 / 43–121119 / 64–217111 / 58–208
DLI10 / 8–1317 / 14–2025 / 22–2934 / 32–3840 / 38–4444 / 42–4949 / 46–5143 / 40–4632 / 29–3620 / 17–2411 / 9–149 / 7–11
RH %62 / 58–6660 / 58–6359 / 57–6257 / 55–5955 / 53–5854 / 49–5747 / 42–5247 / 41–5150 / 45–5355 / 51–5861 / 58–6562 / 59–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 211 grid cells holding the 431 in-range records, 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 888:1296 (45.575, -115.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -34.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -19.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.1 °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 211 distinct grid cells holding 431 of the 431 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 888:1296 (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 45.50_-115.000, lapse-corrected -714 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1166 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.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 3171804 (Synthyris missurica (Raf.) Pennell, 764 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeIdaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, California · 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 marker46.21, -117.581 · in the densest population, 312 records (54% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 576 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 431 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 230 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 97 km away. 8 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 145 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.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 3171804 (Synthyris missurica (Raf.) Pennell): Kew's file holds it as Synthyris missurica (Raf.) Pennell (synonym under Veronica missurica Raf.); 764 records, from GBIF's download.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 576 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist and GBIF media were skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not a statement that none exist.

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

Hieracium scouleri Hieracium scouleri Scouler's hawkweed Photo: CC BY, cigazzeCeanothus velutinus Ceanothus velutinus Big buck-brush Photo: CC BY, machaut2Larix occidentalis Larix occidentalis Western larch Photo: CC0, author not statedSilene douglasii Silene douglasii Douglas' campion Photo: CC0, author not statedRibes viscosissimum Ribes viscosissimum Sticky currant Photo: CC BY, Kyle ElshoffPterospora andromedea Pterospora andromedea Pinedrops Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Veronica 179 in the reference

Veronica adamsii Veronica adamsii Adams' Koromiko Photo: CC0, author not statedVeronica agrestis Veronica agrestis Green field-speedwell Photo: CC0, author not statedVeronica albicans Veronica albicans Veronica recurva Photo: CC BY, Kate McAlpineVeronica allionii Veronica allionii Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Augustin SoulardVeronica alpina Veronica alpina Alpine speedwell Photo: CC0, author not statedVeronica americana Veronica americana American speedwell Photo: CC BY, IDClaireVeronica amplexicaulis Veronica amplexicaulis Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Pieter PelserVeronica anagallis-aquatica Veronica anagallis-aquatica Blue water-speedwell Photo: CC BY, Jason GrantVeronica × andersonii Veronica × andersonii Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, jonno_99Veronica aphylla Veronica aphylla Largeflower Speedwell Photo: CC0, author not statedVeronica armena Veronica armena Armenian speedwell Photo: CC BY-SA, Grzegorz GrzejszczakVeronica armstrongii Veronica armstrongii Armstrong's Whipcord Photo: CC BY-SA, Nick all 180 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Synthyris missurica. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Plantaginaceae
Described by
Raf.
Native to
Idaho, Montana, Oregon +2
Wild records
576 in range · 230 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
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Veronica missurica Raf. (plant_name_id 2463196), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 764 records of GBIF's key 3171804, Synthyris missurica (Raf.) Pennell (Kew's file holds it as Synthyris missurica (Raf.) Pennell (synonym under Veronica missurica Raf.)): the GBIF download; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 45.50_-115.000, lapse-corrected -714 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 264736-2, POWO 264736-2
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 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 34 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…