Species
+

Heuchera americana L.

American alumroot, American alumroot, alumroot, alumroot

Climate known 67 photographs Temperate garden plant
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

Heuchera americana, or American alumroot, is a small evergreen perennial, under 2 ft (0.61 m) high and wide, native to eastern and central North America while also ranging into Ontario, Canada. It is a part of the Saxifrage family.

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

About the genus · Heuchera

Heuchera is a genus of largely evergreen perennial plants in the family Saxifragaceae. All species are native to North America except for Heuchera sichotensis, native to the Russian Far East. Common names include alumroot and coral bells.

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

Family
Saxifragaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Ontario, Illinois, Missouri +21
Wild records
1748 in range· 540 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1194mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 116 mm (CHELSA)
Light
13–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Heuchera, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to September and November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1194 mm a year, wettest July at 116 mm, driest February at 81 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -13.2 °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 Heuchera americana f. angustipetala Rosend., Butters & Lakela; Heuchera americana var. brevipetala Rosend., Butters & Lakela; Heuchera americana var. calycosa (Small) Rosend., Butters & Lakela; Heuchera americana var. heteradenia Fernald; Heuchera americana var. subtruncata Fernald and 12 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Heuchera, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to September and 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 (843 mm of 1194 mm) takes 8 months, March to September and November. Mean temperature moves 23.8 °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 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 1194 mm a year, wettest July at 116 mm, driest February at 81 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1194 mm a year at the habitat, 843 mm of it March to September and November. Wettest month July at 116 mm, driest February at 81 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1037 mm to 1434 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 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 40 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 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 -13.2 °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 -13.2 °C, the absolute minimum -25.8 °C, about 101 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -2.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -6.6 °C to 1.1 °C), warmest day 29.7 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -13.2 °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: 56 to 59% 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 6 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Jul; mean night from -3 °C in Jan to 20 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1194 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1241 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -25.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.9 °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°frost31.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-25.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 13–40RH 56–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1241 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 °C6 / 2–108 / 4–1313 / 9–1819 / 15–2223 / 20–2628 / 25–3030 / 27–3229 / 26–3225 / 22–2820 / 16–2213 / 10–177 / 4–11
Night °C-3 / -7–1-1 / -5–33 / -1–78 / 4–1113 / 10–1618 / 15–2020 / 17–2220 / 17–2216 / 13–1810 / 7–135 / 2–8-1 / -4–3
Rain mm85 / 63–12581 / 61–135104 / 80–133104 / 85–125115 / 97–148111 / 97–128116 / 98–13598 / 81–12099 / 82–11890 / 72–11796 / 79–12595 / 75–135
DLI15 / 12–1720 / 18–2127 / 25–2934 / 32–3637 / 36–3940 / 39–4138 / 37–4134 / 33–3829 / 27–3122 / 20–2416 / 13–1813 / 10–15
RH %58 / 56–6157 / 55–5956 / 55–5756 / 54–5758 / 56–6059 / 57–6159 / 58–6159 / 58–6259 / 57–6158 / 56–5958 / 57–5959 / 57–61

Each figure is the median across the 1241 grid cells holding the 1576 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 1093:1937 (35.325, -83.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -25.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -13.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.9 °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 1241 distinct grid cells holding the 1576 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1093:1937 (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 35.50_-83.125, lapse-corrected +49 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 915 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, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker38.983, -77.239 · in the densest population, 1094 records (63% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1748 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 540 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 214 km away. 9 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 172 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 1748 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Heuchera americanaHeuchera americanaHeuchera americanaHeuchera americanaHeuchera americanaHeuchera americanaHeuchera americanaHeuchera americana

Photographs: (c) John Michael, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) M. Whitson, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0.

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

Influence of Substrate Water Content and Daily Light Integral on Photosynthesis, Water Use Efficiency, and Morphology of Heuchera americana
Katherine F. Garland, Stephanie E. Burnett, Michael Day, Marc W. van Iersel (2012) · Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
Controlled Freezing of Twenty-three Container-grown Herbaceous Perennials
Todd A. Herrick, Leonard P. Perry (1995) · Journal of Environmental Horticulture
On Plants with Almost Regular Meiosis I
Henry Wilhelm Jensen (1939) · CYTOLOGIA
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2023) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Production of Heuchera and Coleus
Katherine F. Garland (2009) · DigitalCommons (California Polytechnic State University)
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.

Other Heuchera 3 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 88 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.