Species
+

Prunella vulgaris L.

Alpine Self-heal, Common Self Heal, Common Selfheal, Heal-all

Climate known 62 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

Prunella vulgaris, the common self-heal, heal-all, woundwort, heart-of-the-earth, carpenter's herb, brownwort or blue curls, is an herbaceous flowering plant in the mint family (Lamiaceae).

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

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Føroyar +168
Wild records
460 in range· 115 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
923mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 89 mm (CHELSA)
Light
5–36DLI
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 (July to January and March in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 923 mm a year, wettest October at 89 mm, driest April at 60 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 36 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 Brunella vulgaris (L.) Moench; Brunella vulgaris Greene; Brunella vulgaris L.; Prunella vulgaris f. nana J.Erikson; Prunella vulgaris f. vulgaris and 2 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (July to January and March 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 (657 mm of 923 mm) takes 8 months, July to January and March. Mean temperature moves 15.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to July and September.

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 923 mm a year, wettest October at 89 mm, driest April at 60 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

923 mm a year at the habitat, 657 mm of it July to January and March. Wettest month October at 89 mm, driest April at 60 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 739 mm to 1655 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: 5 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 36 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 45).

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 -19.9 °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 -5.3 °C to 5.7 °C), warmest day 22.1 °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 67% 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. 923 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 398 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -19.9 °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)-19.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 5–36RH 60–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 398 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 / 1–126 / 3–1210 / 6–1413 / 11–1717 / 14–2120 / 17–2622 / 19–2822 / 19–2819 / 16–2414 / 12–199 / 7–156 / 3–12
Night °C1 / -6–60 / -5–63 / -2–75 / 3–99 / 7–1212 / 10–1614 / 12–1914 / 12–1912 / 10–158 / 6–124 / 1–91 / -4–6
Rain mm81 / 52–21163 / 43–17274 / 49–16060 / 43–12770 / 52–12873 / 48–11881 / 17–12278 / 21–11780 / 49–11889 / 65–15388 / 63–22386 / 57–243
DLI7 / 4–1412 / 9–2019 / 16–2829 / 26–3534 / 32–3936 / 33–4236 / 32–4530 / 27–4022 / 18–3214 / 11–247 / 5–165 / 3–13
RH %66 / 59–6965 / 57–6663 / 56–6560 / 56–6360 / 57–6460 / 58–6460 / 57–6461 / 58–6563 / 59–6564 / 58–6666 / 59–6967 / 59–70

Each figure is the median across the 398 grid cells holding the 450 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 768:3709 (51.575, 5.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -19.9 °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 398 distinct grid cells holding the 450 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 768:3709 (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 -10 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 11 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, Føroyar, Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Madeira, Altay, Buryatiya, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, Amur, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Primorye, Sakhalin, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey, China South-Central, Hainan, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, Qinghai, China Southeast, Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Myanmar, Vietnam, Aleutian Is., Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Labrador, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, 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, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica· introduced: Norfolk Is., Tasmania, Chatham Is., New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Hawaii, Bermuda, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Juan Fernández Is., Amsterdam-St.Paul Is., Falkland Is., Tristan da Cunha
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker52.05, 5.55 · in the densest population, 99 records (22% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 460 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 115 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 586 km away. 346 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 10 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 centre of the tenth-degree cell nearest the middle (no openly licensed record lies in the population, so no record's coordinates are published) of the densest 1° population of the 460 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Prunella vulgarisPrunella vulgarisPrunella vulgarisPrunella vulgarisPrunella vulgarisPrunella vulgarisPrunella vulgarisPrunella vulgaris

Photographs: (c) Millie Basden, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (5).

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

Different arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi alter coexistence and resource distribution between co‐occurring plant
Marcel G. A. van der Heijden, Andres Wiemken, Ian R. Sanders (2003) · New Phytologist
Sterol glucosides from Prunella vulgaris
Hisashi Kojima, Noriko Sato, Akiko Hatano, Haruo Ogura (1990) · Phytochemistry
Anti-HIV-1 Activity of Herbs in Labiatae.
Katsuhiro Yamasaki, Masami Nakano, Takuya Kawahata, Haruyo Mori (1998) · Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Drought reduces floral resources for pollinators
Benjamin B. Phillips, Rosalind F. Shaw, Matthew J. Holland, Ellen L. Fry (2018) · Global Change Biology
Optimized ultrasonic-assisted extraction of flavonoids from Prunella vulgaris L. and evaluation of antioxidant activities in vitro
Guowen Zhang, Li He, Mingming Hu (2010) · Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies
Ethnoveterinary medicines used for ruminants in British Columbia, Canada
Cheryl Lans, Nancy J. Turner, Tonya Khan, Gerhard W. Brauer (2007) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Anti-Allergic and Anti-Inflammatory Triterpenes from the Herb of Prunella vulgaris
Shi Ryu, Min-Ho Oak, Seok-Keun Yoon, Dong-Im Cho (2000) · Planta Medica
[Medicinal Lamiaceae with antioxidant properties, a potential source of rosmarinic acid].
Jean‐Louis Lamaison, C Petitjean-Freytet, A. Carnat (1991) · PubMed
Elicitation of Medicinally Important Antioxidant Secondary Metabolites with Silver and Gold Nanoparticles in Callus Cultures of Prunella vulgaris L.
Hina Fazal, Bilal Haider Abbasi, Nisar Ahmad, Mohammad Ali (2016) · Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology
Fischer’s Plants in folk beliefs and customs: a previously unknown contribution to the ethnobotany of the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian borderland
Monika Kujawska, Piotr Klepacki, Łukasz Łuczaj (2017) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Characterization, antioxidant and immunomodulatory activities of polysaccharides from Prunella vulgaris Linn
Chao Li, Qiang Huang, Xiong Fu, Xiu-Jie Yue (2015) · International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Screening of traditional Chinese medicinal plants for quorum-sensing inhibitors activity
Khee Hoon Koh, Foong-Yee Tham (2011) · Journal of Microbiology Immunology and Infection

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