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Ziziphus spina-christi; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-02-11

Ziziphus spina-christi (L.) Desf.

Christ's-thorn; Syrian Christ-thorn

Rhamnaceae · Egypt, Burkina +31

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Ziziphus spina-christi, photograph (c) Theo Busschau, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ziziphus spina-christi, photograph (c) Theo Busschau, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ziziphus spina-christi, photograph (c) Theo Busschau, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ziziphus spina-christi, photograph (c) Miriam Sokhet, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ziziphus spina-christi, photograph (c) Miriam Sokhet, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ziziphus spina-christi, photograph (c) Miriam Sokhet, some rights reserved (CC BY) 74 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
5.0°C
Record low 0.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
33°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
495mm
5 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
19–50DLI
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 December to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Ziziphus spina-christi, known as the Christ's thorn jujube, is a thorny and evergreen tree or plant.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ziziphus spina-christi", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Ziziphus

Ziziphus is a genus of spiny shrubs and small trees in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae. It includes 68 species native to tropical and subtropical parts of Africa, Eurasia, Australia and South America. The leaves are alternate, entire, with three prominent basal veins, and often aromatic. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ziziphus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (332 mm of 426 mm) falls in December to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 14.3 °C against a yearly mean of 20.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Rain

426 mm in the median year at the habitat, 332 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 107 mm, driest months (3 at 1 mm); 4 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 114 mm to 787 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 495 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 426 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: 19 to 50 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 5.0 °C, the absolute minimum 0.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 47.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 9.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 6.2 °C to 17.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 32.5 °C in July and August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.0 °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: 53 to 58% 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 -179 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 Ziziphus spina-christi through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 33 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 9.3 °C; 426 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.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost47.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER0.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 19–50RH 53–58%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 428 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 °C17 / 15–3017 / 16–3320 / 19–3625 / 23–3929 / 26–3932 / 28–3933 / 30–3833 / 29–3831 / 29–3629 / 27–3523 / 22–3319 / 17–30
Night °C9 / 6–1710 / 6–1911 / 8–2114 / 12–2517 / 15–2620 / 18–2722 / 20–2922 / 20–2821 / 19–2619 / 17–2315 / 12–2111 / 8–18
Rain mm107 / 0–17092 / 0–13453 / 1–7715 / 6–265 / 2–421 / 0–741 / 0–1541 / 0–1942 / 0–10519 / 3–3450 / 1–8980 / 0–134
DLI21 / 19–3826 / 24–4234 / 33–4542 / 41–4648 / 42–5050 / 39–5248 / 35–5045 / 34–4738 / 37–4130 / 29–3923 / 22–3919 / 17–37
RH %57 / 36–6057 / 33–5956 / 33–5853 / 40–5653 / 39–5855 / 42–6057 / 47–6258 / 49–6458 / 48–6255 / 46–5955 / 41–5756 / 37–59
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 428 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1246 records in those cells; 39 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 1310:4392 (24.475, 39.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 47.3 °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 428 distinct grid cells holding 1246 of the 1350 in-range records (39 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1310:4392 (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 24.50_39.375, lapse-corrected -179 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 610 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.
NativeEgypt, Burkina, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Gulf States, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan · introduced: Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, KwaZulu-Natal, Comoros, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles · 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 marker31.953, 35.396 · in the densest population, 1091 records (74% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1484 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1246 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1350 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 233 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3213 km away. 34 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 134 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.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1484 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Ziziphus spina-christi, photograph 1did not loadZiziphus spina-christi, photograph 2did not loadZiziphus spina-christi, photograph 3did not loadZiziphus spina-christi, photograph 4did not loadZiziphus spina-christi, photograph 5did not loadZiziphus spina-christi, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Theo Busschau, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Miriam Sokhet, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Pluchea dioscoridis Pluchea dioscoridis Barnouf Photo: CC0, author not statedAlhagi graecorum Alhagi graecorum Persian mannaplant Photo: CC BY, pavlaki1968Erucaria hispanica Erucaria hispanica Spanish Erucaria Photo: CC BY, Marios Thoma Teucrium procerum Tall Germander Urochloa mutica Urochloa mutica Para grass Photo: CC0, author not statedCyperus dives Cyperus dives Fig Sedge Photo: CC BY-SA, alanbedfordshaw

Other Ziziphus 8 in the reference

Ziziphus jujuba Ziziphus jujuba Common jujube Photo: CC BY, Kim, Hyun-taeZiziphus lotus Ziziphus lotus Lotus tree Photo: CC BY, Karim HaddadZiziphus mauritiana Ziziphus mauritiana Indian jujube Photo: CC BY-SA, Ong Jyh SengZiziphus mucronata Ziziphus mucronata Buffalo thorn Photo: CC BY-SA, Rebecca Ryen-StolsZiziphus nummularia Ziziphus nummularia Jujube Photo: CC BY, harrierZiziphus oenopolia Ziziphus oenopolia Jackal jujube Photo: CC0, author not statedZiziphus rivularis Ziziphus rivularis False Buffalo Thorn Photo: CC BY, Wynand UysZiziphus rugosa Ziziphus rugosa Wrinkled Jujube Photo: CC BY, Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya

Names & registers

Also known as Girtanneria spina-christi; Rhamnus divaricata; Rhamnus heterogenea; Rhamnus nabeca; Rhamnus napeca and 12 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Rhamnaceae
Described by
(L.) Desf.
Native to
Egypt, Burkina, Ghana +30
Wild records
1484 in range · 233 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
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 13 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (9 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 2 at a zoo; 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 24.50_39.375, lapse-corrected -179 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 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 48 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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