Species
+

Vitex agnus-castus L.

Chaste Tree, Chaste-tree, Chasteberry, Lilac Chastetree

Climate known 71 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

Vitex agnus-castus is a plant native of the Mediterranean region. It is one of the few temperate-zone species of Vitex, which is on the whole a genus of tropical and subtropical flowering plants. Vitex is a cross-pollinating plant, but its self-pollination has been recorded.

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

About the genus · Vitex

Vitex is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae containing about 210 species. Common names include chaste tree or chastetree, traditionally referring to V. agnus-castus, but often applied to other species, as well, and pūriri for the New Zealand species V. lucens. Species of Vitex are native throughout the tropics and subtropics, with a few species in warm-temperate Eurasia and one in New Zealand.

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

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Baleares, Corse, France +31
Wild records
1475 in range· 1122 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Jul, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
729mm/yr
11 wet months · peak Dec 92 mm (CHELSA)
Light
10–45DLI
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 winter growing season, September to February and April in the northern hemisphere (September to February and April at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 729 mm a year, wettest December at 92 mm, driest July at 20 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 45 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 2.1 °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 Agnus-castus alba Carrière; Agnus-castus macrostachya Carrière; Agnus-castus marostachya Carrière; Agnus-castus robusta (Lebas) Carrière; Agnus-castus vulgaris Carrière and 32 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, September to February and April in the northern hemisphere (September to February and April at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (526 mm of 729 mm) falls in September to February and April, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 12.6 °C against a yearly mean of 15.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to August and October.

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 729 mm a year, wettest December at 92 mm, driest July at 20 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

729 mm a year at the habitat, 526 mm of it September to February and April. Wettest month December at 92 mm, driest July at 20 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 512 mm to 1153 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: 10 to 45 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 45 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 6, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

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 2.1 °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 2.1 °C, the absolute minimum -4.0 °C, 29 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 4.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 0.5 °C to 9.9 °C), warmest day 26.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.1 °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: 57 to 61% 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 11 °C in Jan to 27 °C in Jul; mean night from 5 °C in Jan to 20 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 729 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1171 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -4.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost36.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-4.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 10–45RH 57–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1171 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 °C11 / 7–1411 / 8–1514 / 11–1716 / 14–2020 / 18–2424 / 21–2927 / 24–3127 / 24–3123 / 20–2819 / 16–2315 / 10–1911 / 7–16
Night °C5 / 1–105 / 1–107 / 3–119 / 5–1313 / 9–1717 / 13–2020 / 15–2320 / 15–2317 / 12–2114 / 9–189 / 5–146 / 2–11
Rain mm75 / 49–14962 / 41–12058 / 41–9860 / 30–9356 / 14–9536 / 2–7620 / 1–6433 / 1–7163 / 11–10485 / 39–13289 / 58–16492 / 59–165
DLI12 / 8–1818 / 13–2427 / 21–3235 / 29–4040 / 34–4645 / 37–5045 / 37–5039 / 32–4530 / 24–3720 / 15–2713 / 9–1910 / 6–15
RH %61 / 58–6660 / 57–6459 / 56–6259 / 55–6159 / 54–6258 / 52–6257 / 51–6258 / 52–6359 / 55–6261 / 57–6461 / 58–6661 / 58–67

Each figure is the median across the 1171 grid cells holding the 1467 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 1021:4057 (38.925, 22.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.9 °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 1171 distinct grid cells holding the 1467 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1021:4057 (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 39.00_23.125, lapse-corrected -136 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 47 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.
NativeBaleares, Corse, France, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Krym, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Gulf States, India, Pakistan· introduced: Germany, Belarus, Oman, New Mexico, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Mexico Northeast, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Peru, Brazil Northeast
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker42.461, 3.1 · in the densest population, 352 records (24% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1475 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1122 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 21 km away. 383 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 8 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 2° block of the 1475 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Vitex agnus-castusVitex agnus-castusVitex agnus-castusVitex agnus-castusVitex agnus-castusVitex agnus-castusVitex agnus-castusVitex agnus-castus

Photographs: (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Jacky Judas, 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 Vitex agnus-castus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Evaluation of Estrogenic Activity of Plant Extracts for the Potential Treatment of Menopausal Symptoms
Jianghua Liu, Joanna E. Burdette, Haiyan Xu, Chungang Gu (2001) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
The Complete German Commission E Monographs: Therapeutic Guide to Herbal Medicines
Michael Nathan, Robert Scholten (1999) · Annals of Internal Medicine
Adverse effects of herbal medicines: an overview of systematic reviews
Paul Posadzki, Leala K. Watson, Edzard Ernst (2013) · Clinical Medicine
Chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus) – Pharmacology and clinical indications
W. Wuttke, H. Jarry, Volker Christoffel, Barbara A. Spengler (2003) · Phytomedicine
Botanicals and Their Bioactive Phytochemicals for Women’s Health
Birgit M. Dietz, Atieh Hajirahimkhan, Tareisha L. Dunlap, Judy L. Bolton (2016) · Pharmacological Reviews
In vitroscreening for the tumoricidal properties of international medicinal herbs
Elizabeth Mazzio, Karam F. A. Soliman (2008) · Phytotherapy Research
Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of Vitex agnus-castus L. fruits and leaves essential oils
Dejan Stojković, Marina Sokóvić, Jasmina Glamočlija, Ana M. Džamić (2011) · Food Chemistry
Vitex agnus-castus Extracts for Female Reproductive Disorders: A Systematic Review of Clinical Trials
Marco Die, Henry Burger, Helena Teede, Kerry Bone (2012) · Planta Medica
A review of effective herbal medicines in controlling menopausal symptoms
Rahele Kargozar, Hoda Azizi, Roshanak Salari (2017) · Electronic physician

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 Vitex 4 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (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 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; 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 85 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.