Species
+

Glechoma hederacea L.

Creeping Charlie, Gewöhnlicher Gundermann (DE), Gill-over-the-ground, Ground Ivy

Climate known 55 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

Glechoma hederacea is an aromatic, perennial, evergreen creeper of the mint family Lamiaceae. It is commonly known as ground-ivy, gill-over-the-ground, creeping charlie, alehoof, tunhoof, catsfoot, field balm, and run-away-robin. It is also sometimes known as creeping jenny, but that name more commonly refers to Lysimachia nummularia. It is used as a salad green in many countries.

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

About the genus · Glechoma

Glechoma is a genus of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae, first described for modern science in 1753. It is distributed in northern Asia and Europe with a center of diversity in Asia, especially China. One species is naturalized in New Zealand and in North America.

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

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Great Britain +43
Wild records
641 in range· 153 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
871mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Dec 82 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–34DLI
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 871 mm a year, wettest December at 82 mm, driest April at 48 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.7 °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 Calamintha hederacea (L.) Scop.; Chamaecissos hederaceus (L.) Nieuwl. & Lunell; Chamaeclema hederacea (L.) Moench; Glechoma borealis Salisb.; Glechoma bulgarica Borbás and 45 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 (627 mm of 871 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 15.0 °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 871 mm a year, wettest December at 82 mm, driest April at 48 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

871 mm a year at the habitat, 627 mm of it June to January. Wettest month December at 82 mm, driest April at 48 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 704 mm to 1195 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 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 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 -8.7 °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 -8.7 °C, the absolute minimum -20.0 °C, about 61 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.4 °C in February (across the envelope cells -2.5 °C to 2.2 °C), warmest day 21.9 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.7 °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: 60 to 69% 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 22 °C in Jul; mean night from 0 °C in Feb to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 871 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 538 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -20.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.5 °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°frost29.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-20.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 4–34RH 60–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 538 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 / 3–76 / 5–79 / 8–1013 / 11–1417 / 15–1820 / 17–2122 / 20–2322 / 19–2318 / 17–1914 / 13–159 / 8–106 / 4–7
Night °C1 / -3–20 / -3–23 / 1–45 / 4–69 / 8–1011 / 11–1314 / 13–1514 / 13–1511 / 10–138 / 7–104 / 2–61 / -2–3
Rain mm76 / 55–9260 / 45–7770 / 51–9048 / 43–8066 / 55–10573 / 59–10880 / 58–10777 / 61–10877 / 60–10081 / 66–10881 / 62–10282 / 62–105
DLI5 / 5–810 / 9–1417 / 16–2127 / 26–3033 / 32–3534 / 33–3733 / 32–3628 / 27–3119 / 18–2312 / 11–156 / 5–94 / 3–7
RH %68 / 65–6965 / 62–6663 / 60–6460 / 58–6260 / 59–6260 / 59–6361 / 59–6361 / 59–6363 / 62–6465 / 64–6667 / 65–6969 / 66–70

Each figure is the median across the 538 grid cells holding the 630 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 771:3709 (51.425, 5.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -20.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.5 °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 538 distinct grid cells holding the 630 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 771:3709 (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 51.50_5.625, lapse-corrected -2 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 19 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, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, France, Portugal, 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, Altay, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Turkey, Xinjiang· introduced: Azores, Amur, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Magadan, Primorye, Sakhalin, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Alaska, Labrador, Newfoundland, 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, California, Utah, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South
Kew's description“perennial or subshrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker52.254, 4.527 · in the densest population, 246 records (38% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 641 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 153 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 598 km away. 103 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 11 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 of the 641 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Glechoma hederaceaGlechoma hederaceaGlechoma hederaceaGlechoma hederaceaGlechoma hederaceaGlechoma hederaceaGlechoma hederaceaGlechoma hederacea

Photographs: (c) Gavin Slater, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Sandy Wolkenberg, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Alex Abair, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Selectivity and functional diversity in arbuscular mycorrhizas of co‐occurring fungi and plants from a temperate deciduous woodland
Thorunn Helgason, James Merryweather, Jean Denison, Paul Wilson (2002) · Journal of Ecology
Hydrogen peroxide concentrations in leaves under natural conditions
John M. Cheeseman (2006) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Screening seeds of some Scottish plants for free radical scavenging activity
Yashodharan Kumarasamy, Maureen Byres, Philip Cox, Marcel Jaspars (2007) · Phytotherapy Research
Taxus baccata L.
Peter A. Thomas, Anthony Polwart (2003) · Journal of Ecology
The Effects of Nutrient Availability on Foraging in the Clonal Herb Glechoma Hederacea
A. J. Slade, Michael J. Hutchings (1987) · Journal of Ecology
Ursolic Acid and Its Derivatives as Bioactive Agents
Sithenkosi Mlala, Adebola O. Oyedeji, Mavuto Gondwe, Opeoluwa O. Oyedeji (2019) · Molecules
Ethnobotanical review of wild edible plants used in the Czech Republic
Kateřina Šimková, Zbyněk Polesný (2014) · Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants (Julius Kühn-Institut)
Vanillin formation from ferulic acid in Vanilla planifolia is catalysed by a single enzyme
Nethaji J. Gallage, Esben Halkjær Hansen, Rubini Kannangara, Carl Erik Olsen (2014) · Nature Communications
Clonal Integration and Plasticity in Foraging Behaviour in Glechoma Hederacea
A. J. Slade, M. J. Hutchings (1987) · Journal of Ecology

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 2026-09-19 (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 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.