Species
+

Viburnum lentago L.

Nannyberry, Wild Raisin, black haw, nanny-berry

Climate known 67 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

Viburnum lentago, the nannyberry, sheepberry, or sweet viburnum, is a species of Viburnum native to North America.

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

About the genus · Viburnum

Viburnum is a genus of about 150–175 species of flowering plants in the family Viburnaceae. Its current classification is based on molecular phylogeny. It was previously included in the family Caprifoliaceae.

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

Family
Viburnaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick +28
Wild records
1878 in range· 522 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jul, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
996mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 105 mm (CHELSA)
Light
9–40DLI
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 (April to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 996 mm a year, wettest June at 105 mm, driest February at 59 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -19.5 °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 Viburnum lentaginum St.-Lag.; Viburnum lentago f. sphaerocarpum (A.Gray ex Fernald) Rehder; Viburnum lentago var. pyrifolium Chapm.; Viburnum lentago var. sphaerocarpum A.Gray; Viburnum lentago var. sphaerocarpum A.Gray ex Fernald and 2 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April 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 (738 mm of 996 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 27.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October 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 996 mm a year, wettest June at 105 mm, driest February at 59 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

996 mm a year at the habitat, 738 mm of it April to November. Wettest month June at 105 mm, driest February at 59 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 787 mm to 1271 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: 9 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 40 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 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

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 -19.5 °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 -19.5 °C, the absolute minimum -29.1 °C, about 135 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -10.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells -14.9 °C to -6.6 °C), warmest day 26.1 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -19.5 °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: 55 to 63% 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 26 °C in Jul; mean night from -11 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 996 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1417 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -29.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 27.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°frost27.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-29.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 9–40RH 55–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1417 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 / -6–2-1 / -3–45 / 2–812 / 10–1519 / 17–2124 / 22–2626 / 25–2825 / 24–2721 / 19–2314 / 12–167 / 4–101 / -4–4
Night °C-11 / -15–-7-9 / -13–-6-4 / -7–-13 / 0–59 / 7–1115 / 13–1718 / 16–1917 / 15–1913 / 11–156 / 4–90 / -3–3-6 / -11–-3
Rain mm65 / 21–8959 / 20–8463 / 41–10182 / 64–10894 / 78–115105 / 82–124101 / 80–12396 / 80–12094 / 80–11382 / 65–11784 / 42–11071 / 27–106
DLI11 / 10–1318 / 17–1926 / 25–2632 / 30–3337 / 35–3840 / 38–4239 / 38–4134 / 33–3526 / 24–2818 / 16–2011 / 9–139 / 8–11
RH %63 / 59–6661 / 57–6457 / 56–6055 / 54–5756 / 54–5958 / 56–6058 / 57–6060 / 58–6160 / 57–6159 / 57–6161 / 59–6363 / 59–66

Each figure is the median across the 1417 grid cells holding the 1775 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 904:2003 (44.775, -79.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -29.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -19.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.5 °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 1417 distinct grid cells holding the 1775 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 904:2003 (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 45.00_-80.000, lapse-corrected -24 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 179 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.
NativeManitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Ontario, Québec, Montana, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Georgia, Maryland, Virginia· introduced: Colorado
Kew's description“shrub or tree”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker45.287, -75.675 · in the densest population, 1078 records (57% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1878 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 522 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 114 km away. 21 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 103 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 1878 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Viburnum lentagoViburnum lentagoViburnum lentagoViburnum lentagoViburnum lentagoViburnum lentagoViburnum lentagoViburnum lentago

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Mary Krieger, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Zihao Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

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

The role of host-plant fidelity in initiating insect race formation
Thomas K. Wood, Kelley J. Tilmon, A.B. Shantz, Colin K. Harris (1999) · Evolutionary ecology research
A Shrub Community of Viburnum Lentago, Stable for Twenty‐Five Years
William A. Niering, Frank E. Egler (1955) · Ecology
Stability of Viburnum lentago Shrub Community After 30 Years
William A. Niering, Glenn D. Dreyer, Frank E. Egler, James P. Anderson (1986) · Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club
Identity and potential pathogenicity of Phytophthora species found on symptomatic Rhododendron plants in a Finnish nursery
A. Rytkönen, A. Lilja, Annelies Vercauteren, Seija Sirkiä (2012) · Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology
Vegetation variation among mesic successional forest stands in northern lower Michigan
Mark R. Roberts, Norman L. Christensen (1988) · Canadian Journal of Botany
Prior reproduction and weather affect berry crops in central Ontario, Canada
Eric J. Howe, Martyn E. Obbard, Jeff Bowman (2011) · Population Ecology
Treehoppers (Homoptera: Membracidae) on pin oak in Kentucky
Monte P. Johnson, Paul H. Freytag (1997)
First Report of Citrus Leaf Blotch Virus Infecting Viburnum lentago in South Korea
Myung‐Hwi Kim, Hee‐Seong Byun, Hae-Ryun Kwak, Sun-Jung Kwon (2023) · Plant Disease
First report of cucumber mosaic virus infecting Viburnum lentago in South Korea
Sun-Jung Kwon, Hee‐Seong Byun, Hae-Ryun Kwak, Bong Choon Lee (2025) · Journal of Plant Pathology
First Report of Citrus Leaf Blotch Virus Infecting Forsythia viridissima in China
Chanchan Huang, Mengting Wu, Lin Wang, Bin Ke (2024) · Plant Disease
Survival and growth of 20 species of trees and shrubs on Appalachian surface mines
Alexis Monteleone, Jeff Skousen, Jamie Shuler, Louis M. McDonald (2018) · Land Degradation and Development
EVALUATION OF SMALL TREE AND SHRUB PLANTINGS ON RECLAIMED SURFACE MINES IN WEST VIRGINIA
Alexis Monteleone (2017) · Journal American Society of Mining and Reclamation

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 Viburnum 15 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 81 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.