Species
+

Chelidonium majus L.

čistotel bol'šoj, Celandine, Felogne, Great Celandine

Climate known 84 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

Chelidonium majus, the greater celandine, is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the poppy family Papaveraceae. One of two species in the genus Chelidonium, it is native to Europe and western Asia and introduced widely in North America.

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

About the genus · Chelidonium

Chelidonium, commonly known as celandines, is a small genus of flowering plants in the poppy family, This genus is native to northern Africa and Eurasia, where they are widespread, ranging from western Europe to east Asia.

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

Family
Papaveraceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Norway +60
Wild records
669 in range· 122 open

At a glance

Warmest month
23°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
862mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 80 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–35DLI
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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 862 mm a year, wettest July at 80 mm, driest April at 50 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -9.3 °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 Chelidonium cavaleriei H.Lév.; Chelidonium dahuricum DC.; Chelidonium grandiflorum (DC.) DC.; Chelidonium haematodes Moench; Chelidonium laciniatum Mill. and 37 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January 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 (616 mm of 862 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 16.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

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 862 mm a year, wettest July at 80 mm, driest April at 50 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

862 mm a year at the habitat, 616 mm of it June to January. Wettest month July at 80 mm, driest April at 50 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 653 mm to 1273 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: 4 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 35 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 41).

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 -9.3 °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 -9.3 °C, the absolute minimum -20.9 °C, about 65 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -0.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells -4.7 °C to 1.9 °C), warmest day 22.5 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -9.3 °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 5 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul; mean night from -0 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 862 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 561 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -20.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost30.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-20.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 4–35RH 59–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 561 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 °C5 / 2–86 / 4–910 / 8–1213 / 12–1518 / 16–2020 / 19–2423 / 21–2622 / 21–2619 / 18–2214 / 13–179 / 7–125 / 3–8
Night °C-0 / -5–2-0 / -4–22 / -0–45 / 3–69 / 8–1012 / 11–1414 / 13–1614 / 13–1611 / 10–138 / 6–104 / 1–61 / -3–3
Rain mm75 / 35–9559 / 35–8269 / 45–9350 / 43–10268 / 58–11674 / 55–11680 / 51–11475 / 52–11675 / 54–10979 / 51–12078 / 52–11580 / 49–117
DLI6 / 5–1111 / 9–1718 / 16–2528 / 26–3233 / 32–3735 / 33–4034 / 32–4129 / 27–3520 / 18–2712 / 11–186 / 6–124 / 4–9
RH %67 / 62–6965 / 60–6662 / 58–6459 / 57–6159 / 57–6160 / 57–6260 / 56–6260 / 57–6263 / 59–6464 / 62–6667 / 63–6968 / 63–70

Each figure is the median across the 561 grid cells holding the 663 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 789:3711 (50.525, 5.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -20.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -9.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.3 °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 561 distinct grid cells holding the 663 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 789:3711 (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 50.50_5.625, lapse-corrected -115 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 150 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.
NativeDenmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Morocco, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, Altay, Buryatiya, Chita, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, Amur, Khabarovsk, Primorye, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Iran, Turkey, China South-Central, Manchuria, China North-Central, Qinghai, China Southeast, Mongolia, Korea· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Montana, Washington, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Utah, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, Peru, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.75, 5.65 · in the densest population, 192 records (29% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 669 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 122 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 548 km away. 59 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 6 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 centre of the tenth-degree cell nearest the middle (no openly licensed record lies in the population, so no record's coordinates are published) of the densest 1° population of the 669 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Chelidonium majusChelidonium majusChelidonium majusChelidonium majusChelidonium majusChelidonium majusChelidonium majusChelidonium majus

Photographs: (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (8).

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

PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES OFCHELIDONIUM MAJUSL. (PAPAVERACEAE)
M. Colombo (1996) · Pharmacological Research
Antiinflammatory Activity of Quaternary Benzophenanthridine Alkaloids fromChelidonoum majus*,**
J Lenfeld, M Kroutil, E. Maršálek, Jiří Slavík (1981) · Planta Medica
Antiulcerogenic Effect of Some Gastrointestinally Acting Plant Extracts and their Combination
Mohamed T. Khayyal, Mona A. El‐Ghazaly, Sanaa A. Kenawy, Mona Seif-El-Nasr (2011) · Arzneimittelforschung
Acute hepatitis induced by greater celandine (Chelidonium majus)
J Benninger, H. T. Schneider, Detlef Schuppan, Thomas Kirchner (1999) · Gastroenterology
Screening for antimicrobial activity of some medicinal plants species of traditional Chinese medicine
Dagmar Janovská, Kateřina Kubíková, Ladislav Kokoška (2003) · Czech Journal of Food Sciences
Chelidonium majus – an Integrative Review: Traditional Knowledge versus Modern Findings
Marilena Gîlcă, Laura Găman, Elena Panait, Irina Stoian (2010) · Forschende Komplementärmedizin / Research in Complementary Medicine
Greater Celandine's Ups and Downs−21 Centuries of Medicinal Uses of Chelidonium majus From the Viewpoint of Today's Pharmacology
Sylwia Zielińska, A. Jezierska-Domaradzka, Magdalena Wójciak, Ireneusz Sowa (2018) · Frontiers in Pharmacology
Biosurfactant production and hydrocarbon degradation activity of endophytic bacteria isolated from Chelidonium majus L.
Olga Marchut-Mikołajczyk, Piotr Drożdżyński, Dominika Pietrzyk, Tadeusz Antczak (2018) · Microbial Cell Factories
Antibacterial Alkaloids from Chelidonium Majus Linn (Papaveraceae) Against Clinical Isolates of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus
Guo Ying Zuo, Fan-Yan Meng, Xiao Yan Hao, Yun Ling Zhang (2009) · Journal of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
Efficacy of a commercial herbal formula in chicken experimental coccidiosis
Loredana Maria Pop, Erzsébet Varga, Mircea Coroian, Maria Nedișan (2019) · Parasites & Vectors
Modulation of multidrug resistance in cancer cells by chelidonine and Chelidonium majus alkaloids
Mahmoud Zaki El-Readi, SafaaYehia Eid, Mohamed L. Ashour, Ahmad Tahrani (2012) · Phytomedicine
The Activity of Isoquinoline Alkaloids and Extracts from Chelidonium majus against Pathogenic Bacteria and Candida sp.
Sylwia Zielińska, Magdalena Wójciak, Magdalena Dziągwa-Becker, Michał Gleńsk (2019) · Toxins

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.

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 search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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); that build: carried 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 2026-09-20 (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 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
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 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.