Species
+

Aeonium balsamiferum Webb & Berthel.

Balsam-Aeonium (DE); Bejeque farrobo (ES), balsam aeonium

Climate known 44 photographs Cactus or succulent
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

Aeonium balsamiferum is a species of tropical flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae. The species is endemic in the Canary Islands.

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

About the genus · Aeonium

Aeonium, the tree houseleeks, is a genus of about 35 species of succulent, subtropical plants of the family Crassulaceae. Many species are popular in horticulture. The genus name comes from the ancient Greek αἰώνιος / aiōnios (ageless). More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Aeonium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Crassulaceae
Described by
Webb & Berthel.
Native to
Canary Is.
Wild records
49 in range· 10 open

At a glance

Warmest month
23°C
Sep, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
172mm/yr
4 wet months · peak Dec 40 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–46DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Aeonium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 172 mm a year, wettest December at 40 mm, driest June at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 46 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 13.1 °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 Sempervivum balsamiferum (Webb & Berthel.) Christ; Sempervivum balsamiferum (Webb & Berthel.) Webb & Berthel.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Aeonium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March 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 (138 mm of 172 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 17.0 °C against a yearly mean of 18.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

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 172 mm a year, wettest December at 40 mm, driest June at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

172 mm a year at the habitat, 138 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 40 mm, driest June at 1 mm; 5 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 150 mm to 307 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: 21 to 46 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

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 13.1 °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 13.1 °C, the absolute minimum 11.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 24.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 15.1 °C in February (across the envelope cells 12.7 °C to 16.1 °C), warmest day 22.9 °C in September (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.1 °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: 59 to 68% 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 17 °C in Feb to 23 °C in Sep; mean night from 15 °C in Feb to 21 °C in Sep. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 172 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 22 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 11.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 24.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°24.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)11.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0102030405060mm rainDLI 21–46RH 59–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 22 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 °C17 / 17–1817 / 16–1918 / 17–2118 / 17–2119 / 18–2221 / 20–2422 / 22–2623 / 22–2623 / 22–2622 / 21–2420 / 19–2219 / 18–20
Night °C15 / 13–1615 / 13–1616 / 14–1616 / 14–1717 / 16–1819 / 18–2021 / 20–2121 / 20–2221 / 20–2220 / 18–2118 / 16–1917 / 14–18
Rain mm26 / 23–4928 / 23–5119 / 17–278 / 7–173 / 2–6111 / 1–24 / 4–816 / 13–3025 / 21–4740 / 35–58
DLI23 / 22–2430 / 28–3037 / 37–3843 / 42–4346 / 45–4646 / 46–4846 / 46–4744 / 43–4438 / 37–3932 / 30–3225 / 24–2521 / 20–22
RH %59 / 57–6061 / 59–6260 / 58–6362 / 59–6464 / 60–6667 / 62–7068 / 60–7068 / 61–7066 / 62–6864 / 62–6661 / 59–6261 / 59–62

Each figure is the median across the 22 grid cells holding the 36 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 1218:3329 (29.075, -13.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 24.1 °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 22 distinct grid cells holding the 36 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1218:3329 (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 29.00_-13.750, lapse-corrected +288 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 315 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.
NativeCanary Is.· introduced: Great Britain
Kew's description“succulent subshrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker29.008, -13.707 · in the densest population, 48 records (98% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 49 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 10 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 15 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 13 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 49 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Aeonium balsamiferumAeonium balsamiferumAeonium balsamiferumAeonium balsamiferumAeonium balsamiferumAeonium balsamiferumAeonium balsamiferumAeonium balsamiferum

Photographs: (c) Christoph Moning, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6); no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons 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 Aeonium balsamiferum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Effects of climate change on the distribution of plant species and plant functional strategies on the Canary Islands
Dagmar M. Hanz, V. Cutts, Martha Paola Barajas Barbosa, Adam C. Algar (2023) · Diversity and Distributions
Inter- and intra-island speciation and their morphological and ecological correlates in Aeonium (Crassulaceae), a species-rich Macaronesian radiation
Thibaud F.E. Messerschmid, Stefan Abrahamczyk, Ángel Bañares-Baudet, Miguel Brilhante (2023) · Annals of Botany
Anther Wall Formation in Aeonium balsamiferum and A. ciliatum (Crassulaceae)
Г. М. Анисимова, И. И. Шамров (2022) · Doklady Biological Sciences
ANTHER STRUCTURE IN CRASSULA ERICOIDES, C. INTERMEDIA AND C. MULTICAVA (CRASSULACEAE)
Г. М. Анисимова, И. И. Шамров (2023) · БОТАНИЧЕСКИЙ ЖУРНАЛ
A monograph of the genus Aeonium (Crassulaceae-sempervivoideae) /
Ho‐Yih Liu (1986) · OhioLink ETD Center (Ohio Library and Information Network)
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Cambios en la geomorfología, vegetación y usos del suelo en las erupciones históricas de los siglos XX y XXI en La Palma (Islas Canarias, España)
Rafael U. Gosálvez, Rafael Becerra-Ramírez, Estela Escobar Lahoz, Aarón M. Santana-Cordero (2026) · Vegueta Anuario de la Facultad de Geografía e Historia
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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 Aeonium 35 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); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
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); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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 2026-09-20; 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 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.