Ruscus aculeatus L.
Bruschi, Butcher's-Broom
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
Ruscus aculeatus, known as butcher's-broom, is a low evergreen dioecious Eurasian shrub, with flat shoots known as cladodes that give the appearance of stiff, spine-tipped leaves. Small greenish flowers appear in spring, and are borne singly in the centre of the cladodes. The female flowers are followed by a red berry, and the seeds are bird-distributed, but the plant also spreads vegetatively by means of rhizomes. It is native to Eurasia and some northern parts of Africa. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Ruscus aculeatus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Ruscus
Ruscus, commonly known as butcher's-broom, is a genus of six species of flowering plants, native to western and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa, and southwestern Asia east to the Caucasus. In the APG III classification system, it is placed in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Convallarioideae. Like many lilioid monocots, it was formerly classified in the family Liliaceae.
Text from Wikipedia, “Ruscus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Oxymyrsine pungens Bubani; Ruscus aculeatus f. pumilus Druce; Ruscus aculeatus subsp. laxus (Sm.) K.Richt.; Ruscus aculeatus var. angustifolius Boiss.; Ruscus aculeatus var. laxus (Sm.) Gray and 5 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and March to May 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 (676 mm of 887 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and March to May. Mean temperature moves 16.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to July and September to November.
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 887 mm a year, wettest November at 104 mm, driest July at 44 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
887 mm a year at the habitat, 676 mm of it September to January and March to May. Wettest month November at 104 mm, driest July at 44 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 650 mm to 1606 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: 9 to 42 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 42 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 5, 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 -2.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -2.7 °C, the absolute minimum -8.3 °C, about 27 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 2.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells -2.5 °C to 6.4 °C), warmest day 25.9 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.7 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 63% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 9 / 5–13 | 9 / 7–14 | 13 / 10–16 | 15 / 12–18 | 19 / 16–22 | 23 / 19–26 | 26 / 21–29 | 26 / 21–29 | 22 / 18–25 | 18 / 14–21 | 12 / 10–16 | 9 / 6–13 |
| Night °C | 2 / -3–6 | 2 / -2–7 | 4 / 1–8 | 6 / 4–10 | 10 / 8–13 | 14 / 11–17 | 16 / 13–20 | 16 / 14–20 | 14 / 11–17 | 10 / 8–14 | 6 / 3–10 | 3 / -1–8 |
| Rain mm | 80 / 47–145 | 64 / 41–121 | 65 / 43–117 | 77 / 51–143 | 72 / 47–142 | 52 / 24–128 | 44 / 10–113 | 51 / 14–116 | 75 / 40–143 | 103 / 68–178 | 104 / 63–180 | 100 / 58–182 |
| DLI | 11 / 6–15 | 17 / 12–21 | 25 / 19–30 | 32 / 29–37 | 38 / 34–42 | 41 / 37–47 | 42 / 36–48 | 36 / 31–43 | 28 / 22–33 | 18 / 13–23 | 12 / 8–16 | 9 / 5–13 |
| RH % | 62 / 59–67 | 61 / 58–65 | 59 / 56–63 | 60 / 56–62 | 60 / 56–63 | 59 / 54–63 | 58 / 52–64 | 59 / 54–64 | 60 / 57–63 | 62 / 59–65 | 63 / 59–67 | 63 / 59–68 |
Each figure is the median across the 555 grid cells holding the 780 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 977:3448 (41.125, -7.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -8.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.2 °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 555 distinct grid cells holding the 780 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 977:3448 (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 41.00_-7.500, lapse-corrected -160 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 499 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Eleftherios Katsillis, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).
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 Ruscus aculeatus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Nigella damascena Damascus hellebore
Laurus nobilis Bay
Clinopodium nepeta Calamint
Pyracantha coccinea Firethorn
Convolvulus tricolor Dwarf Morning Glory
Cercis siliquastrum Judas TreeOther Ruscus 1 in the reference
History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search APIclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.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-derivationopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.