Centranthus ruber (L.) DC.
Bovisand-sailor, Jupiter's beard, Jupiter's-beard, Pretty Betsy
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
Valeriana rubra, the red valerian, spur valerian, kiss-me-quick, fox's brush, devil's beard or Jupiter's beard, is a popular garden plant grown for its ornamental flowers. It is not to be confused with the closely related Valeriana officinalis.
Text from Wikipedia, “Valeriana rubra”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Centranthus
Valeriana is a genus of flowering plants in the family Caprifoliaceae, members of which may be commonly known as valerians. It contains many species, including the garden valerian, Valeriana officinalis. Valeriana has centers of diversity in Eurasia and South America, and is represented by native species on all continents except Antarctica.
Text from Wikipedia, “Valeriana”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Centranthus maritimus Gray; Kentranthus ruber (L.) DC.; Kentranthus ruber (L.) Druce; Valeriana angustifolia Sibth. & Sm.; Valeriana calcarata Clairv., 1811.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and March to May in the northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (626 mm of 831 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and March to May. Mean temperature moves 14.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to July and September to November.
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 831 mm a year, wettest October at 97 mm, driest July at 41 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
831 mm a year at the habitat, 626 mm of it September to January and March to May. Wettest month October at 97 mm, driest July at 41 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 627 mm to 1295 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: 9 to 42 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 42 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 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).
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 -2.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -2.5 °C, the absolute minimum -11.7 °C, about 15 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.1 °C in February (across the envelope cells 0.0 °C to 7.2 °C), warmest day 24.5 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.5 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 64% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 9 / 6–12 | 9 / 7–12 | 12 / 10–15 | 14 / 12–17 | 18 / 15–21 | 22 / 18–26 | 24 / 20–29 | 25 / 20–28 | 21 / 18–25 | 17 / 14–20 | 12 / 9–16 | 9 / 6–13 |
| Night °C | 3 / -0–7 | 3 / 0–7 | 5 / 2–9 | 7 / 5–11 | 10 / 8–14 | 14 / 11–18 | 16 / 14–20 | 16 / 13–21 | 14 / 11–18 | 11 / 8–15 | 7 / 4–11 | 4 / 1–8 |
| Rain mm | 77 / 54–114 | 60 / 41–91 | 64 / 41–90 | 64 / 49–113 | 64 / 45–101 | 52 / 23–82 | 41 / 10–79 | 52 / 20–82 | 76 / 52–125 | 97 / 76–154 | 95 / 68–153 | 89 / 62–145 |
| DLI | 11 / 5–15 | 17 / 10–21 | 25 / 17–29 | 32 / 27–37 | 37 / 32–43 | 41 / 34–47 | 42 / 33–47 | 36 / 28–41 | 27 / 20–32 | 18 / 12–22 | 12 / 7–16 | 9 / 4–13 |
| RH % | 63 / 59–68 | 62 / 58–65 | 60 / 57–64 | 60 / 57–63 | 60 / 56–63 | 60 / 55–64 | 60 / 53–64 | 60 / 54–64 | 61 / 57–64 | 63 / 60–65 | 64 / 60–68 | 64 / 59–69 |
Each figure is the median across the 223 grid cells holding the 276 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 935:3647 (43.225, 2.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -11.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.0 °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 223 distinct grid cells holding the 276 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 935:3647 (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 43.00_2.500, lapse-corrected -302 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 114 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: bogsuckers, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Jon Mortin, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); daisyfinniear, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF; Daniel Cahen, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Karen Fry, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Mary E. Macaulay, P.Eng., CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Nick Butcher, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF.
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 Centranthus ruber, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
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Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
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