Species
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Daphne mezereum L.

February daphne, Gewöhnlicher Seidelbast, Kellerhals (DE); Paradise plant, Kägennin'

Climate known 72 photographs
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

Daphne mezereum, the mezereon, is a species of Daphne in the flowering plant family Thymelaeaceae, native to most of Europe and Western Asia, north to northern Scandinavia and Russia. In southern Europe it is confined to medium to higher elevations in the subalpine vegetation zone, but descends to sea level in northern Europe. It is generally confined to soils derived from limestone. In the United Kingdom, the native population became a protected species in 1975 under the Conservation of Wild Creatures and Wild Plants Act.

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

About the genus · Daphne

Daphne, a figure in Greek mythology, was in various retellings a mortal woman or a nymph, daughter of a river god. The god Apollo fell in love with Daphne and chased her against her wishes, but before he caught her, Daphne prayed for escape, and was transformed into a laurel tree. Thenceforth Apollo developed a special reverence for laurel.

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

Family
Thymelaeaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Finland, Great Britain, Norway +32
Wild records
818 in range· 173 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 13 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
988mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 108 mm (CHELSA)
Light
6–35DLI
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 (May to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 988 mm a year, wettest June at 108 mm, driest February at 55 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -15.6 °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 Daphne albiflora J.P.Wolff; Daphne florida Salisb.; Daphne lateriflora Raf.; Daphne lateriflora St.-Lag.; Daphne liottardi Vill. and 20 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December 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 (736 mm of 988 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 18.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

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 988 mm a year, wettest June at 108 mm, driest February at 55 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

988 mm a year at the habitat, 736 mm of it May to December. Wettest month June at 108 mm, driest February at 55 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 669 mm to 1602 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: 6 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 6 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 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

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 -15.6 °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 -15.6 °C, the absolute minimum -27.3 °C, about 126 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -4.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells -8.4 °C to -2.3 °C), warmest day 21.9 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -15.6 °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 67% 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 2 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from -5 °C in Jan to 13 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 988 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 587 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -27.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.8 °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°frost30.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-27.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 6–35RH 59–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 587 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 °C2 / -1–44 / 0–68 / 4–1012 / 9–1417 / 14–1920 / 17–2222 / 20–2422 / 19–2418 / 15–1913 / 10–157 / 4–83 / 0–5
Night °C-5 / -8–-2-4 / -8–-2-1 / -4–13 / -0–48 / 5–911 / 8–1213 / 10–1513 / 10–159 / 7–115 / 3–71 / -3–2-3 / -7–-1
Rain mm63 / 33–10655 / 32–9569 / 40–12265 / 41–10996 / 63–146108 / 70–175106 / 75–195105 / 70–18888 / 59–14979 / 46–13076 / 50–12378 / 46–126
DLI8 / 4–1013 / 9–1620 / 16–2429 / 26–3133 / 32–3535 / 33–3734 / 32–3730 / 27–3222 / 18–2414 / 10–168 / 4–116 / 3–8
RH %65 / 61–7063 / 60–6861 / 59–6459 / 57–6160 / 57–6260 / 58–6260 / 58–6261 / 58–6363 / 61–6565 / 63–6767 / 63–7166 / 62–71

Each figure is the median across the 587 grid cells holding the 789 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 787:3900 (50.625, 15.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -27.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -15.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.8 °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 587 distinct grid cells holding the 789 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 787:3900 (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_15.000, lapse-corrected -15 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 359 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.
NativeFinland, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, France, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Altay, West Siberia, Kazakhstan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Iran, Turkey· introduced: Denmark, Buryatiya, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Alaska, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Montana, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Rhode I., Vermont
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker47.815, 13.112 · in the densest population, 407 records (50% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 818 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 173 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 130 km away. 2 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 29 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 818 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Daphne mezereumDaphne mezereumDaphne mezereumDaphne mezereumDaphne mezereumDaphne mezereumDaphne mezereumDaphne mezereum

Photographs: (c) Aurelijus Narbutas, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Christophe, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Galyna Mykytynets, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Agnieszka Bochenek, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Jonáš Gaigr, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Green synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles by aqueous leaf extract of Daphne mezereum as a novel dye removing material
Nasrin Beheshtkhoo, Mohammad Amin Jadidi Kouhbanani, Amir Savardashtaki, Ali Mohammad Amani (2018) · Applied Physics A
Mezerein: Antileukemic Principle Isolated from Daphne mezereum L.
S. Morris Kupchan, Robert L. Baxter (1975) · Science
Floral fragrance chemistry in the early flowering shrub Daphne mezereum
Anna‐Karin Borg‐Karlson, C. Rikard Unelius, Irena Valterová, L. Anders Nilsson (1996) · Phytochemistry
The structure of mezerein, a major toxic principle of daphne mezereum L.
Alvin Ronlán, Börje Wickberg (1970) · Tetrahedron Letters
The effect of selected growth regulators and culture media on regeneration of Daphne mezereum L. ‘Alba’
Karolina Nowakowska, A. Pacholczak, Waldemar Tepper (2019) · RENDICONTI LINCEI
Triumbellin, A tricoumarin rhamnopyranoside from Daphne mezereum
B. Kreher, Hildebert Wagner, A. Neszmélyi (1990) · Phytochemistry
Structural elucidation of novel pro-inflammatory polysaccharides from Daphne mezereum L.
Hussain Shakeel Butt, Emilie Steinbakk Ulriksen, Frode Rise, Helle Wangensteen (2023) · Carbohydrate Polymers
NUEVOS DATOS SOBRE LA FLORA DE LA PROVINCIA DE CUENCA, XIII
Gonzalo Mateo Sanz, Miguel Ángel Gómez‐Serrano, Olga Mayoral García-Berlanga, Vicente J. Arán Redó (2001) · Flora montibérica/Flora montiberica
Soil seed bank characteristics in relation to different shrub species in semiarid regions
Mahbubeh Hadinezhad, Reza Erfanzadeh, Hassan Ghelichnia (2020) · Land Degradation and Development

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 Daphne 2 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 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 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)
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 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.