Species
+

Petunia axillaris (Lam.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.

Large White Petunia, large white petunia, white moon petunia, white moon petunia

Climate known 73 photographs
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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

Petunia axillaris, the large white petunia, wild white petunia or white moon petunia, is an annual herbaceous plant in the family Solanaceae, genus Petunia. It is native to temperate South America comprising southern Brazil, parts of Argentina and Uruguay. The plant's flowers, the only white ones found in the Petunia genus, are 3 to 7 cm long. The commonly-grown garden petunia is a hybrid of P. axillaris and P. integrifolia.

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

About the genus · Petunia

Petunia is a genus of 20 species of flowering plants of South American origin. The popular flower of the same name derived its epithet from the French, which took the word pétun, 'tobacco', from a Tupi–Guarani language. A tender perennial plant, most of the varieties seen in gardens are hybrids.

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

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
(Lam.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.
Native to
Bolivia, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast +4
Wild records
1001 in range· 626 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jan, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1031mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 127 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–46DLI
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: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1031 mm a year, wettest February at 127 mm, driest July at 32 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 46 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -0.8 °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.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (809 mm of 1031 mm) falls in October to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.4 °C against a yearly mean of 17.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to October.

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 1031 mm a year, wettest February at 127 mm, driest July at 32 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1031 mm a year at the habitat, 809 mm of it October to April. Wettest month February at 127 mm, driest July at 32 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 605 mm to 1456 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 16 to 46 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 46 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 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

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 -0.8 °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 -0.8 °C, the absolute minimum -4.5 °C, about 7 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 7.0 °C in July (across the envelope cells 2.7 °C to 9.4 °C), warmest day 27.9 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.8 °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 62% 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 15 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Jan; mean night from 7 °C in Jul to 19 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1031 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 667 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -4.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 39.1 °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°50°frost39.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-4.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 16–46RH 57–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 667 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 °C28 / 23–3127 / 23–2925 / 21–2821 / 18–2418 / 15–2016 / 13–1815 / 12–1818 / 14–2019 / 15–2222 / 18–2525 / 20–2727 / 22–30
Night °C19 / 14–2118 / 14–2017 / 13–1914 / 10–1611 / 7–138 / 4–107 / 3–98 / 4–1010 / 5–1213 / 9–1515 / 11–1717 / 13–19
Rain mm122 / 85–215127 / 91–172127 / 86–165104 / 34–16162 / 16–13035 / 6–11632 / 9–11535 / 7–10358 / 14–112102 / 35–128114 / 64–147113 / 72–200
DLI45 / 39–4739 / 36–4132 / 30–3324 / 23–2619 / 17–2216 / 14–2118 / 15–2324 / 21–2930 / 27–3436 / 35–3943 / 39–4446 / 41–48
RH %58 / 55–6359 / 57–6360 / 58–6561 / 58–6461 / 57–6462 / 55–6460 / 53–6458 / 52–6357 / 52–6357 / 53–6357 / 53–6257 / 54–62

Each figure is the median across the 667 grid cells holding the 981 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 2460:2423 (-33.025, -58.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.1 °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 667 distinct grid cells holding the 981 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2460:2423 (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 -33.00_-58.750, lapse-corrected +14 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 38 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.
NativeBolivia, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay, Uruguay· introduced: Germany, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Sicilia, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Assam, India, New South Wales, Queensland, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Cuba, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“annual or subshrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-34.74, -55.079 · in the densest population, 610 records (61% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1001 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 626 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 120 km away. 169 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 20 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 1001 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Petunia axillarisPetunia axillarisPetunia axillarisPetunia axillarisPetunia axillarisPetunia axillarisPetunia axillarisPetunia axillaris

Photographs: (c) Agustina Medina, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Lourdes Mariel Quarin, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Florencia Grattarola, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) aacocucci, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Solana González Novoa, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).

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

Single Gene–Mediated Shift in Pollinator Attraction in Petunia
Maria Elena Hoballah, Thomas Gübitz, Jeroen Stuurman, Larissa Broger (2007) · The Plant Cell
Light-induced vegetative anthocyanin pigmentation in Petunia
Nick W. Albert, D. H. LEWIS, H. Zhang, Louis Irving (2009) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Effect of Temperature on the Floral Scent Emission and Endogenous Volatile Profile of Petunia axillaris
Masanori SAGAE, Naomi Oyama‐Okubo, Toshio Ando, Eduardo Marchesi (2008) · Bioscience Biotechnology and Biochemistry
Genome-wide identification and characterization of the SBP-box gene family in Petunia
Qin Zhou, Sisi Zhang, Feng Chen, Baojun Liu (2018) · BMC Genomics
Diversity and natural hybridization in a highly endemic species of Petunia (Solanaceae): a molecular and ecological analysis
Aline Pedroso Lorenz, Geraldo Mäder, Valéria Cunha Muschner, João Renato Stehmann (2006) · Molecular Ecology
The importance of strigolactone transport regulation for symbiotic signaling and shoot branching
Lorenzo Borghi, Guowei Liu, Aurélia Emonet, Tobias Kretzschmar (2016) · Planta
ISOLATION BARRIERS BETWEEN PETUNIA AXILLARIS AND PETUNIA INTEGRIFOLIA (SOLANACEAE)
Alexandre Dell’Olivo, Maria Elena Hoballah, Thomas Gübitz, Cris Kuhlemeier (2011) · Evolution
Emission Mechanism of Floral Scent inPetunia axillaris
Naomi Oyama‐Okubo, Toshio Ando, Naoharu Watanabe, Eduardo Marchesi (2005) · Bioscience Biotechnology and Biochemistry
Diversification in the S outh A merican P ampas: the genetic and morphological variation of the widespread P etunia axillaris complex ( S olanaceae)
Caroline Turchetto, Nelson J. R. Fagundes, Ana Lúcia Anversa Segatto, Cris Kuhlemeier (2013) · Molecular 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.

Other Petunia 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 96 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.