Species
+

Erigeron canadensis L.

Barrilla, Butterweed, Canada fleabane, Canada fleabane (Jamaica)

Climate known 82 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

Erigeron canadensis is an annual plant native throughout most of North America and Central America. It is also widely naturalized in Eurasia and Australia. Common names include horseweed, Canadian horseweed, Canadian fleabane, coltstail, marestail, and butterweed. It was the first weed to have developed glyphosate resistance, reported in 2001 from Delaware.

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

About the genus · Erigeron

Erigeron is a large genus of plants in the composite family (Asteraceae). It is placed in the tribe Astereae and is closely related to the Old World asters (Aster) and the true daisies (Bellis). The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, and the highest diversity occurs in North America.

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

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba +88
Wild records
207 in range· 36 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jul, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
997mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 109 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–42DLI
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 (March to July and September to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 997 mm a year, wettest June at 109 mm, driest January at 62 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 2.2 °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 Aster canadensis (L.) E.H.L.Krause; Caenotus canadensis (L.) Raf.; Caenotus pusillus (Nutt.) Raf.; Conyza bonariensis var. angustifolia (Cabrera) Cabrera; Conyza canadensis (L.) Cronquist and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to July and September to November 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 (726 mm of 997 mm) takes 8 months, March to July and September to November. Mean temperature moves 17.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to January and March to May.

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 997 mm a year, wettest June at 109 mm, driest January at 62 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

997 mm a year at the habitat, 726 mm of it March to July and September to November. Wettest month June at 109 mm, driest January at 62 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 346 mm to 1541 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: 17 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 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 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

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 2.2 °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 2.2 °C, the absolute minimum -1.8 °C, 25 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells -4.9 °C to 14.6 °C), warmest day 30.9 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.2 °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: 57 to 60% 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 16 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jul; mean night from 6 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 997 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 176 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -1.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost32.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-1.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 17–42RH 57–60 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 176 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 °C16 / 3–2217 / 4–2420 / 8–2524 / 14–2727 / 18–3030 / 21–3231 / 23–3431 / 23–3529 / 22–3125 / 16–2819 / 9–2516 / 5–23
Night °C6 / -5–157 / -3–1510 / 1–1713 / 5–1917 / 9–2221 / 12–2423 / 14–2523 / 14–2520 / 13–2415 / 8–2210 / 3–196 / -3–16
Rain mm62 / 39–12670 / 41–11585 / 44–11677 / 22–111106 / 6–139109 / 3–21078 / 1–18772 / 2–20790 / 6–199104 / 18–14177 / 30–12867 / 40–147
DLI19 / 12–2423 / 18–2929 / 26–3636 / 32–4338 / 37–4841 / 38–5142 / 38–5138 / 34–4633 / 27–3926 / 19–3120 / 12–2517 / 10–21
RH %58 / 56–6458 / 56–6357 / 55–6357 / 53–6259 / 54–6460 / 57–6559 / 54–6560 / 53–6659 / 55–6558 / 55–6458 / 56–6358 / 56–63

Each figure is the median across the 176 grid cells holding the 198 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 1411:1616 (19.425, -99.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.0 °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 176 distinct grid cells holding the 198 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1411:1616 (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 19.50_-99.375, lapse-corrected -383 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2244 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.
NativeAlberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., French Guiana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South· introduced: Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Chagos Archipelago, Mauritius, Réunion, Altay, Buryatiya, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, Amur, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Primorye, Sakhalin, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey, Inner Mongolia, China North-Central, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, New Guinea, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, Fiji, Niue, Marquesas, Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Wake I., Hawaii, Newfoundland
Kew's description“annual” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker32.796, -97.064 · in the densest population, 73 records (35% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 207 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 36 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 59 km away. 511 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 9 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 207 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Erigeron canadensisErigeron canadensisErigeron canadensisErigeron canadensisErigeron canadensisErigeron canadensisErigeron canadensisErigeron canadensis

Photographs: (c) Michael J. Papay, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media 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 Erigeron canadensis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The biology of Canadian weeds. 115. Conyza canadensis
Susan E. Weaver (2001) · Canadian Journal of Plant Science
The Population Dynamics of Erigeron Canadensis, A Successional Winter Annual
David L. Regehr, F. A. Bazzaz (1979) · Journal of Ecology
Anticoagulant and anti-platelet activity of polyphenolic-polysaccharide preparation isolated from the medicinal plant Erigeron canadensis L.
Izabela Pawlaczyk, L Czerchawski, Wiktor Kuliczkowski, Bożena Karolko (2010) · Thrombosis Research
Role of Host Plants in Population Dynamics of Stink Bug 1 Pests of Soybean in South Carolina 2
Walker A. Jones, Michael J. Sullivan (1982) · Environmental Entomology
Low Temperature Photosynthesis in Successional Winter Annuals
David L. Regehr, F. A. Bazzaz (1976) · Ecology
CYTOGENETIC EFFECTS OF 2,4-D AND AMITROLE IN RELATION TO NUCLEAR VOLUME AND DNA CONTENT IN SOME HIGHER PLANTS
T. Mohandas, William F. Grant (1972) · Canadian Journal of Genetics and Cytology
Predicting the potential distribution of an invasive species, Erigeron canadensis L., in China with a maximum entropy model
Huyong Yan, Lei Feng, Lei Feng, Yufei Zhao (2019) · Global Ecology and Conservation
Alien flora across European coastal dunes
Silvia Giulio, Alicia Teresa Rosario Acosta, Marta Carboni, Juan Antonio Campos (2020) · Applied Vegetation Science
Antiproliferative activity of Hungarian Asteraceae species against human cancer cell lines. Part I
Borbála Réthy, Boglárka Csupor‐Löffler, István Zupkó, Zsuzsanna Hajdú (2007) · Phytotherapy Research
A Retrospective View of Old-field Succession after 35 Years
Catherine Keever (1983) · The American Midland Naturalist

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 Erigeron 5 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 2026-09-19 (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 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)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
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.