Species
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Agastache foeniculum (Pursh) Kuntze

Anis-Riesenysop (DE), Blue Giant Hyssop, Blue giant hyssop (EN), Lavender hyssop

Climate known 50 photographs
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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

Agastache foeniculum, commonly called anise hyssop, blue giant hyssop, Fragrant giant hyssop, or the lavender giant hyssop, is a species of perennial plant in the mint family. The plant is native to much of northern North America. It is tolerant of deer and drought, and is visited by many pollinators.

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

About the genus · Agastache

Agastache is a genus of aromatic flowering herbaceous perennial plants in the family Lamiaceae. It contains 22 species, mainly native to North America, one species native to eastern Asia. The common names of the species are a variety of fairly ambiguous and confusing "hyssops" and "mints"; as a whole the genus is known as giant hyssops or hummingbird mints.

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

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
(Pursh) Kuntze
Native to
Northwest Territories, Alberta, British Columbia +17
Wild records
1504 in range· 487 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jul, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
714mm/yr
10 wet months · peak Jun 106 mm (CHELSA)
Light
8–40DLI
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: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 714 mm a year, wettest June at 106 mm, driest February at 18 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -32.4 °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 Agastache anethiodora (Nutt.) Britton & A.Br.; Agastache foeniculum f. bernardii B.Boivin; Agastache foeniculum f. candicans B.Boivin; Agastache foeniculum f. foeniculum; Hyptis marathrosma (Spreng.) Benth. and 16 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October 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 (519 mm of 714 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 15.2 °C against a yearly mean of 5.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

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 714 mm a year, wettest June at 106 mm, driest February at 18 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

714 mm a year at the habitat, 519 mm of it May to October. Wettest month June at 106 mm, driest February at 18 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 463 mm to 960 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: 8 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 8 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 5, 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 -32.4 °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 -32.4 °C, the absolute minimum -44.6 °C, about 195 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -14.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -19.3 °C to -9.1 °C), warmest day 25.7 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -32.4 °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: 54 to 65% 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 -6 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Jul; mean night from -15 °C in Jan to 17 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 714 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 910 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -44.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-60°-40°-20°20°40°frost29.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-44.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 8–40RH 54–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 910 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-6 / -11–-1-3 / -8–13 / -0–712 / 9–1418 / 15–2023 / 20–2526 / 23–2825 / 22–2720 / 17–2212 / 9–153 / -1–7-4 / -9–1
Night °C-15 / -19–-9-12 / -17–-8-7 / -10–-31 / -2–38 / 4–1013 / 10–1617 / 13–1816 / 12–1811 / 7–134 / 0–7-4 / -8–0-12 / -16–-7
Rain mm22 / 17–5118 / 13–5036 / 20–6058 / 28–8882 / 50–101106 / 77–12297 / 75–11286 / 56–11882 / 41–9866 / 25–8436 / 19–7925 / 17–59
DLI11 / 7–1317 / 13–1925 / 23–2733 / 32–3437 / 37–3940 / 38–4240 / 38–4234 / 32–3625 / 23–2817 / 14–2010 / 8–138 / 5–10
RH %65 / 62–7163 / 60–6859 / 57–6254 / 53–5655 / 53–5657 / 55–5858 / 56–5958 / 57–6058 / 56–6058 / 56–6161 / 59–6465 / 61–70

Each figure is the median across the 910 grid cells holding the 1414 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 734:1329 (53.275, -113.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -44.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -32.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.4 °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 910 distinct grid cells holding the 1414 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 734:1329 (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 53.50_-113.750, lapse-corrected +10 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 730 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.
NativeNorthwest Territories, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Ontario, Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin· introduced: Austria, Germany, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Kentucky
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker45.063, -93.113 · in the densest population, 484 records (32% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1504 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 487 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 609 km away. 272 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 90 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 1504 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Agastache foeniculumAgastache foeniculumAgastache foeniculumAgastache foeniculumAgastache foeniculumAgastache foeniculumAgastache foeniculumAgastache foeniculum

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Marilynn Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) BrianGwiz, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

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

Antioxidant, Antimicrobial and Antiviral Properties of Herbal Materials
Shokoh Parham, Anousheh Zargar Kharazi, Hamid Reza Bakhsheshi‐Rad, Hadi Nur (2020) · Antioxidants
Several Culinary and Medicinal Herbs Are Important Sources of Dietary Antioxidants
Steinar Dragland, Haruki Senoo, Kenjiro Wake, Kari Holte (2003) · Journal of Nutrition
Elicitation: A biotechnological tool for enhanced production of secondary metabolites in hairy root cultures
Mihir Halder, Sayantika Sarkar, Sumita Jha (2019) · Engineering in Life Sciences
Establishment and Persistence of Sedum spp. and Native Taxa for Green Roof Applications
Michael A. Monterusso, D. Bradley Rowe, Clayton L. Rugh (2005) · HortScience
Recent advances in targeted antibacterial therapy basing on nanomaterials
Zhongmin Geng, Zhenping Cao, Jinyao Liu (2023) · Exploration
Studies on Colchicine Induced Chromosome Doubling for Enhancement of Quality Traits in Ornamental Plants
Ayesha Manzoor, Touqeer Ahmad, Muhammad Ajmal Bashir, I. A. Hafiz (2019) · Plants
Bioactivity of essential oil of Litsea cubeba from China and its main compounds against two stored product insects
Kai Yang, Cheng Fang Wang, Chun You, Zhu Feng Geng (2014) · Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology
The Chemical Composition of Essential Oils from Cinnamomum camphora and Their Insecticidal Activity against the Stored Product Pests
Shanshan Guo, Zhu‐Feng Geng, Wenjuan Zhang, Junyu Liang (2016) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using a Melissa officinalis leaf extract with antibacterial properties
Álvaro de Jesús Ruíz-Baltazar, Simón Yobanny Reyes‐López, Daniel Larrañaga Ordaz, Miriam Estévez (2017) · Results in Physics
Bovine mastitis, a worldwide impact disease: Prevalence, antimicrobial resistance, and viable alternative approaches
Ana Lizet Morales-Ubaldo, Nallely Rivero-Pérez, Benjamín Valladares-Carranza, Valente Velázquez Ordóñez (2023) · Veterinary and Animal Science
The evolutionary origins of the cat attractant nepetalactone in catnip
Benjamin R. Lichman, Grant T. Godden, John P. Hamilton, Lira Palmer (2020) · Science Advances

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 Agastache 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); 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 74 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.