Species
+

Ruscus hypophyllum L.

Asparagaceae

Climate known 71 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

Ruscus hypophyllum is a species of shrub in the family Asparagaceae. They have a self-supporting growth form. Individuals can grow to 0.42 m.

Text from Wikipedia, “Ruscus hypophyllum”, 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.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Spain, Italy, Sicilia +3
Wild records
709 in range· 431 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Aug, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
705mm/yr
9 wet months · peak Nov 102 mm (CHELSA)
Light
13–47DLI
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 winter growing season, October to February and April in the northern hemisphere (October to February and April at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 705 mm a year, wettest November at 102 mm, driest July at 8 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 47 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 1.4 °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 Platyruscus hypophyllum (L.) A.P.Khokhr. & V.N.Tikhom.; Ruscus hypoglossum subsp. hypophyllum (L.) Arcang.; Ruscus hypoglossum var. hypophyllum (L.) Bolzon; Ruscus hypoglossum var. hypophyllum (L.) P.Fourn., 1935; Ruscus hypophyllum (Mill.) Loudon and 3 more.

Cultivation

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

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

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (495 mm of 705 mm) falls in October to February and April, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 12.8 °C against a yearly mean of 16.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to August and 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 705 mm a year, wettest November at 102 mm, driest July at 8 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

705 mm a year at the habitat, 495 mm of it October to February and April. Wettest month November at 102 mm, driest July at 8 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 488 mm to 1082 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 47 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 47 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 9, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

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 1.4 °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 1.4 °C, the absolute minimum -3.4 °C, about 1 frost night a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells 0.7 °C to 10.4 °C), warmest day 28.0 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.4 °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 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 12 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Aug; mean night from 6 °C in Jan to 20 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 705 mm of rain a year, most in Nov. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 402 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -3.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.3 °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°frost38.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-3.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 13–47RH 56–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 402 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 °C12 / 9–1513 / 10–1615 / 13–1817 / 15–2021 / 19–2325 / 22–2828 / 25–3128 / 26–3125 / 22–2721 / 18–2316 / 13–1913 / 9–16
Night °C6 / 1–107 / 1–118 / 4–1210 / 6–1314 / 10–1617 / 14–1920 / 17–2220 / 17–2318 / 14–2115 / 10–1811 / 6–148 / 2–12
Rain mm73 / 41–12164 / 38–10558 / 36–8465 / 42–10245 / 26–7620 / 8–628 / 2–4018 / 5–6061 / 24–10589 / 56–130102 / 56–159102 / 47–186
DLI16 / 11–1822 / 17–2431 / 25–3338 / 31–4043 / 38–4547 / 42–5047 / 43–5042 / 36–4532 / 27–3624 / 18–2617 / 11–1913 / 9–15
RH %61 / 58–6460 / 57–6359 / 55–6259 / 55–6259 / 54–6257 / 52–6256 / 50–6258 / 51–6360 / 55–6361 / 57–6461 / 58–6461 / 57–65

Each figure is the median across the 402 grid cells holding the 702 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 1067:3487 (36.625, -5.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.3 °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 402 distinct grid cells holding the 702 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1067:3487 (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 36.50_-5.625, lapse-corrected -19 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 180 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.
NativeSpain, Italy, Sicilia, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia· introduced: France, Greece, Kriti, Libya, Canary Is., Ethiopia, Turkey, India
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker36.131, -5.443 · in the densest population, 224 records (32% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 709 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 431 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 881 km away. 93 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 7 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 709 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ruscus hypophyllumRuscus hypophyllumRuscus hypophyllumRuscus hypophyllumRuscus hypophyllumRuscus hypophyllumRuscus hypophyllumRuscus hypophyllum

Photographs: (c) Noland Martin, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Santiago Martín-Bravo, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) frangp, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Andre Hosper, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Ruscus hypophyllum L. extracts: chemical composition, antioxidant, anticoagulant, and antimicrobial activity against a wide range of sensitive and multi-resistant bacteria
Hayet Edziri, Ons Haddad, Dhouha Saïdana, Sawssen Chouchen (2020) · Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Steroidal glycosides from the rhizomes of Ruscus hypophyllum
Yoshihiro Mimaki, Tsukasa Aoki, Maki Jitsuno, Ceyda Sibel Kılıç (2007) · Phytochemistry
In vitro regeneration of Ruscus hypophyllum L. plants
Sumita Jha, Sumitra Sen (1985) · Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)
Stable regenerants from long-term callus cultures of Ruscus hypophyllum L.
Sumita Jha, Jayanti Sen, Sumitra Sen (1989) · CYTOLOGIA
Under Exploited Ornamental Crops: Treasure for Floriculture Industry
S. Rehana, Madhu Bala (2022) · Annals of Horticulture
Effect of various agricultural substrates on biometric and qualitative characteristics of Ruscus hypophyllum.
Iftikhar Ahmad, Adnan Ahmad, Sagheer Ahmad, Atyab Amjad (2012) · International Journal of Agriculture and Biology
Danae racemosa (L.) Moench Ruscus hyrcanus Woron. Ruscus hypophyllum L. Asparagaceae
Rainer W. Bussmann, Ketevan Batsatsashvili, Zaal Kikvidze, Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana (2019) · Ethnobotany of mountain regions
Steroidal Saponins from the Rhizomes of Ruscus Hypophyllum
Yoshihiro Mimaki, Tsukasa Aoki, Maki Jitsuno, Akihito Yokosuka (2008) · Natural Product Communications
Effects of Growing Medium, Shade Level and Fertilizer Rate on Cladode Color, Yield and Vase Life of Ruscus hypophyllum
Robert H. Stamps, Cindy Connery Boone (1992) · Journal of Environmental Horticulture
In vitro toxicity and genotoxic activity of aqueous leaf and fruit extracts of Ruscus hypophyllum L.
Luc Verschaeve, Hayet Edziri, Roel Anthonissen, Dalenda Boujnah (2017) · Acta Physiologiae Plantarum

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 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 2026-09-19 (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 52 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.