Species
+

Gypsophila paniculata L.

Baby's Breath, Baby's Breath (EN), Baby's-breath, Bachelor's button

Climate known 69 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

Gypsophila paniculata, the baby's breath, common gypsophila or panicled baby's-breath, is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae, native to central and eastern Europe. It is an herbaceous perennial growing to 1.2 m (4 ft) tall and wide, with mounds of branching stems covered in clouds of tiny white flowers in summer. Another possible source of this name is its scent, which has been described as sour milk, like a baby's "spit-up". Its natural habitat is on the Steppes in dry, sandy and stony places, often on calcareous soils. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Gypsophila paniculata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Gypsophila

Gypsophila is a genus of flowering plants in the carnation family, Caryophyllaceae. They are native to Eurasia, Africa, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. Turkey has a particularly high diversity of Gypsophila taxa, with about 35 endemic species. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Caryophyllaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary +21
Wild records
1127 in range· 586 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jul, mean day; nights 16 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
536mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 64 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–38DLI
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 536 mm a year, wettest June at 64 mm, driest February at 32 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -24.9 °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 Arrostia paniculata (L.) Raf.; Gypsophila effusa Tausch; Gypsophila hungarica Borbás; Gypsophila manginii Anon.; Gypsophila paniculata subsp. lituanica Zapal. and 9 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 (401 mm of 536 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 27.3 °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 536 mm a year, wettest June at 64 mm, driest February at 32 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

536 mm a year at the habitat, 401 mm of it May to December. Wettest month June at 64 mm, driest February at 32 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 353 mm to 636 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 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 38 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 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 -24.9 °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 -24.9 °C, the absolute minimum -36.1 °C, about 164 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -9.4 °C in February (across the envelope cells -16.4 °C to -2.9 °C), warmest day 25.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -24.9 °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: 54 to 71% 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 -4 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Jul; mean night from -9 °C in Feb to 16 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 536 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 846 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -36.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.1 °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°frost32.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-36.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 4–38RH 54–71 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 846 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 °C-4 / -10–2-3 / -9–53 / -2–1013 / 9–1620 / 17–2224 / 21–2626 / 23–2825 / 22–2818 / 16–2211 / 8–153 / -2–8-2 / -8–3
Night °C-9 / -17–-4-9 / -16–-3-5 / -10–13 / -1–69 / 7–1114 / 12–1616 / 15–1915 / 13–1810 / 7–124 / 1–7-2 / -9–2-7 / -15–-2
Rain mm37 / 21–4632 / 17–3932 / 19–4034 / 24–4244 / 33–6164 / 39–7962 / 37–8049 / 30–6851 / 27–6042 / 28–5446 / 28–5243 / 24–51
DLI6 / 5–811 / 10–1420 / 18–2329 / 27–3136 / 34–3838 / 35–4137 / 34–4031 / 28–3521 / 18–2512 / 10–166 / 5–94 / 3–6
RH %71 / 66–7468 / 63–7263 / 59–6657 / 55–5854 / 51–5756 / 51–5856 / 51–5956 / 51–5958 / 53–6161 / 58–6466 / 64–6869 / 67–72

Each figure is the median across the 846 grid cells holding the 1045 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 768:4322 (51.575, 36.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -36.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -24.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.1 °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 846 distinct grid cells holding the 1045 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 768:4322 (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_36.250, lapse-corrected +22 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 234 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.
NativeAustria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Altay, Tuva, West Siberia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Turkey, Xinjiang, Mongolia· introduced: Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Baltic States, Buryatiya, Irkutsk, Primorye, Sakhalin, Uzbekistan, New Zealand South, Northwest Territories, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Ontario, Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, California, Nevada, Utah, Florida, Maryland
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.719, 39.261 · in the densest population, 442 records (39% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1127 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 586 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 207 km away. 639 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 82 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 4° block of the 1127 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Gypsophila paniculataGypsophila paniculataGypsophila paniculataGypsophila paniculataGypsophila paniculataGypsophila paniculataGypsophila paniculataGypsophila paniculata

Photographs: (c) Yurii Basov, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Igor Balashov, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Анна Митрошенкова, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Pantoea agglomerans: a mysterious bacterium of evil and good. Part III. Deleterious effects: infections of humans, animals and plants
Jacek Dutkiewicz, Barbara Maćkiewicz, Marta Kinga Lemieszek, Marcin Golec (2016) · Annals of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine
Differential Involvement of Indole-3-Acetic Acid Biosynthetic Pathways in Pathogenicity and Epiphytic Fitness of Erwinia herbicola pv. gypsophilae
Shulamit Manulis, Anat Haviv‐Chesner, Maria T. Brandl, S. E. Lindow (1998) · Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions
The Effect of Germicides on the Longevity of Cut Flowers
Rodney B. Jones, Megan Hill (1993) · Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
Increased snow facilitates plant invasion in mixedgrass prairie
Dana M. Blumenthal, Rodney A. Chimner, J. M. Welker, J. A. Morgan (2008) · New Phytologist
A simple technique to overcome vitrification inGypsophila paniculata L.
Willy Dillen, Saskia Buysens (1989) · Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)
Pantoea agglomerans pvs. gypsophilae and betae , recently evolved pathogens?
Shulamit Manulis, Isaac Barash (2003) · Molecular Plant Pathology
The Saponin-Mediated Enhanced Uptake of Targeted Saporin-Based Drugs is Strongly Dependent on the Saponin Structure
Christopher Bachran, Mark Sutherland, Iring Heisler, Philipp Hebestreit (2006) · Experimental Biology and Medicine
Indole-3-acetic acid biosynthetic pathways in Erwinia herbicola in relation to pathogenicity on Gypsophila paniculata
Shulamit Manulis, Lea Valinski, Yedidya Gafni, Joseph Hershenhorn (1991) · Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology

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 Gypsophila 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 159 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.