Species
+

Physostegia virginiana (L.) Benth.

False Dragonhead, Obedience, Obedient Plant, Obedient-plant

Climate known 54 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

Physostegia virginiana, the obedient plant, obedience or false dragonhead, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to North America, where it is distributed from eastern Canada to northern Mexico. Physostegia are known commonly as obedient plants because a flower pushed to one side will often stay in that position. The name “false dragonhead” refers to the dragonheads of the related Dracocephalum, a genus to which the plant once belonged.

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

About the genus · Physostegia

Physostegia, the lionshearts or false dragonheads, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae, native to North America. They are erect rhizomatous herbaceous perennials inhabiting damp, sunny places. They grow up to 2 m (7 ft) tall with purple or pink tubular flowers in racemes in summer.

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

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
(L.) Benth.
Native to
Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta +43
Wild records
1727 in range· 489 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jul, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1050mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 110 mm (CHELSA)
Light
11–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1050 mm a year, wettest June at 110 mm, driest February at 61 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -14.8 °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.

Also known as Dracocephalum virginianum L.; Physostegia intricata Hook., 1835; Physostegia virginiana f. virginiana.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to 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 (776 mm of 1050 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 26.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to 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 1050 mm a year, wettest June at 110 mm, driest February at 61 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1050 mm a year at the habitat, 776 mm of it April to November. Wettest month June at 110 mm, driest February at 61 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 838 mm to 1306 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: 11 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 11 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 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

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 -14.8 °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 -14.8 °C, the absolute minimum -28.6 °C, about 100 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -6.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -13.5 °C to 1.8 °C), warmest day 27.9 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -14.8 °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: 55 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 1 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Jul; mean night from -7 °C in Jan to 19 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1050 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1272 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -28.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.2 °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°frost29.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-28.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 11–40RH 55–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1272 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 °C1 / -5–113 / -2–138 / 4–1815 / 11–2221 / 18–2626 / 23–3028 / 25–3227 / 25–3123 / 20–2816 / 13–2310 / 5–173 / -3–12
Night °C-7 / -14–2-6 / -11–3-1 / -6–75 / 2–1111 / 8–1616 / 14–2019 / 17–2318 / 16–2215 / 12–198 / 6–133 / -2–8-4 / -10–3
Rain mm65 / 23–9561 / 22–9273 / 45–11391 / 72–113105 / 85–131110 / 92–128108 / 85–128100 / 79–12393 / 77–11585 / 66–11484 / 48–11275 / 29–109
DLI13 / 11–1719 / 17–2226 / 25–2833 / 32–3537 / 36–3940 / 38–4240 / 38–4235 / 33–3728 / 25–3120 / 17–2513 / 11–1811 / 8–15
RH %61 / 57–6460 / 56–6257 / 55–5955 / 54–5757 / 55–5958 / 56–6058 / 57–6159 / 57–6158 / 57–6158 / 56–6059 / 57–6161 / 57–64

Each figure is the median across the 1272 grid cells holding the 1592 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 957:1844 (42.125, -87.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -28.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -14.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.2 °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 1272 distinct grid cells holding the 1592 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 957:1844 (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 42.00_-87.500, lapse-corrected +16 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 197 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.
NativeNorthwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Labrador, Newfoundland, Ontario, Québec, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Northeast· introduced: Great Britain, Germany
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker41.898, -87.94 · in the densest population, 285 records (17% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1727 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 489 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 42 km away. 149 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 135 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 1727 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Physostegia virginianaPhysostegia virginianaPhysostegia virginianaPhysostegia virginianaPhysostegia virginianaPhysostegia virginianaPhysostegia virginianaPhysostegia virginiana

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (7); (c) Nathan Aaron, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Vase Life of New Cut Flower Cultivars
Erin M.R. Clark, John M. Dole, Alicain S. Carlson, Erin P. Moody (2010) · HortTechnology
Identification of quaternary ammonium and tertiary sulfonium compounds by plasma desorption mass spectrometry
Connie C. Bonham, Karl V. Wood, Wen‐Ju Yang, Anna Nadolska‐Orczyk (1995) · Journal of Mass Spectrometry
Iridoids in Physostegia virginiana
Søren Rosendal Jensen, Bent Nielsen, Lars Fledelius Rickelt (1989) · Phytochemistry
The Influence of Spacing on Field-grown Perennial Crops
Allan M. Armitage (1987) · HortScience
Bisdesoxydihydromonotropein aus physostegia virginiana
H. Rimpler, B. Lehmann (1970) · Phytochemistry
Vase Life of New Cut Flower Cultivars
Erin M.R. Clark, John M. Dole, Alicain S. Carlson, Erin P. Moody (2010) · HortTechnology
Chopped Newspaper for Weed Control in Nursery Crops
Norman E. Pellett, David Heleba (1995) · Journal of Environmental Horticulture
Alien herbaceous plant species new to Lithuania
Zigmantas Gudžinskas (2017) · Botanica Lithuanica
Foliar Idioblasts in Physostegia virginiana (Lamiaceae)
Nels R. Lersten, John D. Curtis (1998) · The Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society
Night-Interrupted Lighting Accelerates Flowering of Herbaceous Perennials Under Nursery Conditions in the Southern United States
Gary J. Keever, J. Raymond Kessler, J. C. Stephenson (2006) · Journal of Environmental Horticulture
7-Chloro-6-desoxy-harpagide, a major iridoid glucoside from Leonurus cardiaca L. (Ph. Eur.)
Carley Rusch, Lothar Hennig, H Rauwald (2010) · Planta Medica

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 104 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.