Species
+

Zinnia peruviana (L.) L.

Cabrón, Cedstar Zinnia, Clavelón, Escopetón

Climate known 59 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

Zinnia peruviana, the Peruvian zinnia, is an annual flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to South America.

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

About the genus · Zinnia

Zinnia is a genus of plants of the tribe Heliantheae within the family Asteraceae. Members of the genus are notable for their solitary long-stemmed 12-petal flowers that come in a variety of bright colors. The genus name honors 18th-century German scientist Johann Gottfried Zinn.

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

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
(L.) L.
Native to
Arizona, Florida, Georgia +20
Wild records
1305 in range· 624 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
May, mean day; nights 13 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
586mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Jul 117 mm (CHELSA)
Light
31–46DLI
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 summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 586 mm a year, wettest July at 117 mm, driest December at 10 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 46 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 0.8 °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 Chrysogonum peruvianum L.; Crassina intermedia (Engelm.) Kuntze; Crassina leptopoda (DC.) Kuntze; Crassina multiflora (L.) Kuntze; Crassina peruviana (L.) Kuntze and 28 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (411 mm of 586 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 19.0 °C against a yearly mean of 17.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

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 586 mm a year, wettest July at 117 mm, driest December at 10 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

586 mm a year at the habitat, 411 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 117 mm, driest December at 10 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 467 mm to 1297 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: 31 to 46 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 46 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 19, 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 0.8 °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 0.8 °C, the absolute minimum -4.2 °C, about 2 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 7.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 3.3 °C to 17.8 °C), warmest day 26.9 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.8 °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: 50 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 21 °C in Jan to 27 °C in May; mean night from 8 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 586 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 908 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -4.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.3 °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°frost33.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-4.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 31–46RH 50–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 908 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 °C21 / 17–2823 / 18–2725 / 19–2926 / 20–3027 / 18–3125 / 16–3024 / 15–2824 / 18–2823 / 19–2723 / 20–2723 / 19–2722 / 17–27
Night °C8 / 3–189 / 4–1710 / 6–1712 / 8–1713 / 8–1814 / 6–1814 / 5–1814 / 6–1813 / 8–1812 / 9–1710 / 7–169 / 4–17
Rain mm19 / 8–19613 / 7–15711 / 4–15423 / 6–7936 / 13–8389 / 8–195117 / 11–223109 / 11–20596 / 26–19249 / 31–10714 / 9–12710 / 5–174
DLI32 / 27–4237 / 32–3943 / 31–4546 / 25–4944 / 21–5039 / 19–4638 / 21–4338 / 27–4135 / 32–3834 / 31–3833 / 28–4231 / 25–43
RH %54 / 48–6452 / 46–6450 / 43–6451 / 42–6354 / 44–6359 / 50–6560 / 54–6660 / 53–6661 / 53–6759 / 52–6556 / 48–6354 / 48–63

Each figure is the median across the 908 grid cells holding the 1275 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 1393:1600 (20.325, -99.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.3 °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 908 distinct grid cells holding the 1275 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1393:1600 (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 20.50_-100.000, lapse-corrected -51 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2094 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.
NativeArizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay· introduced: Cape Verde, Gulf of Guinea Is., Eritrea, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, China South-Central, China North-Central, China Southeast, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Nepal, New South Wales, Queensland, Tubuai Is., Hawaii, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“annual” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker20.408, -100.083 · in the densest population, 396 records (30% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1305 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 624 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 21 km away. 530 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 30 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 1305 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Zinnia peruvianaZinnia peruvianaZinnia peruvianaZinnia peruvianaZinnia peruvianaZinnia peruvianaZinnia peruvianaZinnia peruviana

Photographs: (c) aacocucci, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Matthew Fainman, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Tomás Carranza Perales, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Sue Carnahan, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Weed species composition and density under conservation agriculture with varying fertiliser rate
Conrad Baker, I. C. Madakadze, C. M. Swanepoel, Zira Mavunganidze (2018) · South African Journal of Plant and Soil
Palynological investigation of selected species of family asteraceae using light and scanning electron microscopic techniques
Nadia Ali, Naveed Akhtar, Shafqat Ali Khan, Noor Ul Uza (2020) · Microscopy Research and Technique
Into the great wide open: do alien plants spread from rivers to dry savanna in the Kruger National Park?
Petr Pyšek, Martin Hejda, Jan Čuda, Guin Zambatis (2020) · NeoBiota
Elemanolides from Zinnia peruviana
Werner Herz, Serengolam V. Govindan (1981) · Phytochemistry
Efecto de polvos de asteráceas sobre el gorgojo del maíz (Sitophilus zeamais Motsch)
Bertha Irene Juárez-Flores, Yolanda Jasso‐Pineda, Juan Rogelio Aguirre‐Rivera, Isidora Jasso Pineda (2010) · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas)
Efeito de extratos aquosos de espécies de Asteraceae sobre Meloidogyne incognita
Isabel Cristina Madeira Ferreira, Gilson Soares da Silva, Fagner Sousa Nascimento (2013) · Summa Phytopathologica
Antibacterial activity of organic extracts from Zinnia peruviana (L.) against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.
Sara E. Satorres, Alejandra I. Chiaramello, Carlos E. Tonn, A. Laciar (2012) · Emirates Journal of Food and Agriculture
NEW ELEMANOLIDES FROM ZINNIA SPECIES: STRUCTURAL REVISION OF THE ZINNOLIDES
Alfredo Ortega, Alfonso Romo de Vivar, Rubén A. Toscano, Emma Maldonado (1983) · Chemistry Letters
Elemenolides from Zinnia peruviana and evaluation of their antibacterial and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities
Ulises González, Jesús Morales‐Jiménez, Antonio Nieto‐Camacho, Mahinda Martínez (2019) · Natural Product Research
Interspecific Hybrids of Zinnia peruviana and Z. elegans through Embryo Culture1
Soad S. Shahin, W. F. Campbell, L. H. Pollard, Alvin R. Hamson (1971) · Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
A Tiglate Analogue of Zinaflorine II Isolated from Zinnia peruviana
René Miranda, Enrique Ángeles, Manuel Salmón (1989) · Journal of Natural Products

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 Zinnia 1 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: filled 2026-09-20
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 102 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.