Species
+

Gillenia trifoliata (L.) Moench

Bowman's root, Bowman's root, bowman's-root, fawn's breath

Climate known 64 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

Gillenia trifoliata, common name Bowman's root or Indian physic, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae, native to eastern North America from Ontario to Georgia. It is an erect herbaceous perennial growing to 100 cm (39 in) tall by 60 cm (24 in) wide, with three lobed palmate leaves and pale pink flowers with narrow petals and reddish calyces above red coloured stems in spring and summer. Its habitat includes dry to moist upland woods and rocky banks.

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

About the genus · Gillenia

Gillenia is a genus of two species of perennial herbs in the family Rosaceae, Gillenia stipulata and Gillenia trifoliata. Common names for plants in this genus include: Bowman's root, Indian-physic, American ipecac. This genus is endemic to dry open woods with acidic soils in eastern North America. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Gillenia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
(L.) Moench
Native to
Ontario, Illinois, Missouri +20
Wild records
1699 in range· 494 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jul, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1258mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 126 mm (CHELSA)
Light
13–39DLI
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 September and December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1258 mm a year, wettest July at 126 mm, driest February at 87 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -15.7 °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 Ipecacuanha virginiana Garsault; Porteranthus trifoliatus (L.) Britton; Spiraea trifoliata L.; Ulmaria trifoliata (L.) Hill.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to September and 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 (891 mm of 1258 mm) takes 8 months, March to September and December. Mean temperature moves 22.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to March and 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 1258 mm a year, wettest July at 126 mm, driest February at 87 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1258 mm a year at the habitat, 891 mm of it March to September and December. Wettest month July at 126 mm, driest February at 87 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1036 mm to 1716 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: 13 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 39 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 40).

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 -15.7 °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 -15.7 °C, the absolute minimum -27.8 °C, about 106 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -3.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells -7.1 °C to -0.8 °C), warmest day 27.5 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -15.7 °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: 56 to 61% 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 28 °C in Jul; mean night from -4 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1258 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 982 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -27.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost36.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-27.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 13–39RH 56–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 982 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 / 1–87 / 3–1111 / 8–1517 / 14–2021 / 19–2426 / 23–2828 / 25–3027 / 24–2923 / 21–2617 / 15–2012 / 9–156 / 3–9
Night °C-4 / -7–-1-3 / -6–11 / -2–46 / 4–911 / 9–1315 / 13–1818 / 16–2017 / 15–2014 / 12–168 / 6–113 / 1–5-2 / -4–1
Rain mm91 / 69–15587 / 66–167108 / 85–155106 / 87–137116 / 99–143118 / 100–153126 / 102–165109 / 89–146108 / 87–14291 / 70–11598 / 79–134100 / 77–166
DLI15 / 12–1720 / 18–2227 / 25–2934 / 32–3637 / 36–3839 / 38–4038 / 37–3834 / 33–3528 / 26–2923 / 19–2416 / 13–1813 / 10–15
RH %58 / 56–6157 / 55–5956 / 55–5856 / 54–5758 / 57–6060 / 58–6261 / 58–6361 / 58–6360 / 58–6258 / 57–6058 / 57–6059 / 57–61

Each figure is the median across the 982 grid cells holding the 1529 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 1027:1794 (38.625, -90.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -27.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -15.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.9 °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 982 distinct grid cells holding the 1529 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1027:1794 (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 38.50_-90.000, lapse-corrected +2 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 155 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.
NativeOntario, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker35.395, -82.865 · in the densest population, 1117 records (66% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1699 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 494 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 23 km away. 20 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 170 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 1699 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Gillenia trifoliataGillenia trifoliataGillenia trifoliataGillenia trifoliataGillenia trifoliataGillenia trifoliataGillenia trifoliataGillenia trifoliata

Photographs: (c) Emily Summerbell, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

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

Die Verbreitung der Blausäure bei den Cormophyten
Lucie Fikenscher, Robert Hegnauer, Harry W.L. Ruijgrok (1981) · Planta Medica
The Gillenia trifoliata genome reveals dynamics correlated with growth and reproduction in Rosaceae
Hilary Ireland, Chen Wu, Cecilia Deng, Elena Hilario (2021) · Horticulture Research
Genome-wide analysis of NBS-LRR genes in Rosaceae species reveals distinct evolutionary patterns
Liping Guo, You Chen, Hanghang Zhang, Yukun Wang (2022) · Frontiers in Genetics
Rosoideae-specific duplication and functional diversification of FT-like genes in Rosaceae
Xiaodong Jiang, Micai Zhong, Xue Dong, Shubin Li (2022) · Horticulture Research
Characterisation of the Gillenia S-locus provides insight into evolution of the nonself-recognition self-incompatibility system in apple
Ruiling Wang, Cecilia Deng, Amandine Cornille, William Marande (2025) · Scientific Reports
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2023) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; 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 69 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.