Species
+

Stachys byzantina K.Koch

Lamb's-ear, Lamb's-ear, Wolliger Ziest (DE), Woolly Hedgenettle (EN)

Climate known 57 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

Stachys byzantina, the lamb's-ear Monty plant or woolly hedgenettle, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae, native to Armenia, Iran, and Turkey. It is cultivated throughout much of the temperate world as an ornamental plant, and is naturalised in some locations as an escapee from gardens. Plants are very often found under the synonym Stachys lanata or Stachys olympica.

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

About the genus · Stachys

Stachys is a genus of plants, one of the largest in the mint family Lamiaceae. Estimates of the number of species vary from about 300 to about 450. Plants of the World Online accepts 373 species. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Stachys”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
K.Koch
Native to
Turkey-in-Europe, Krym, North Caucasus +3
Wild records
21 in range· 14 open

At a glance

Warmest month
25°C
Jul, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
746mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 71 mm (CHELSA)
Light
9–42DLI
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 (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 746 mm a year, wettest October at 71 mm, driest April at 51 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -11.1 °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 Eriostomum lanatum Hoffmanns. & Link; Stachys germanica subsp. lanata Douin; Stachys lanata Jacq.; Stachys lanata var. parvifolia K.Koch; Stachys olympica Poir. and 1 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January 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 (526 mm of 746 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 21.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

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 746 mm a year, wettest October at 71 mm, driest April at 51 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

746 mm a year at the habitat, 526 mm of it June to January. Wettest month October at 71 mm, driest April at 51 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 524 mm to 1143 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 7, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

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 -11.1 °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 -11.1 °C, the absolute minimum -22.6 °C, about 94 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -2.7 °C in February (across the envelope cells -7.7 °C to 4.5 °C), warmest day 25.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -11.1 °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 64% 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 3 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jul; mean night from -3 °C in Feb to 18 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 746 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 20 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -22.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.3 °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°frost34.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-22.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 9–42RH 57–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 20 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 °C3 / 1–94 / 1–87 / 5–1213 / 12–1718 / 15–2223 / 19–2625 / 22–2825 / 22–2821 / 18–2415 / 13–199 / 7–145 / 3–11
Night °C-3 / -8–5-3 / -8–5-0 / -4–65 / 2–1010 / 7–1415 / 11–1818 / 14–2118 / 14–2214 / 10–199 / 5–153 / -1–11-1 / -6–7
Rain mm58 / 29–12058 / 36–10757 / 45–9951 / 38–9554 / 37–12169 / 32–13059 / 17–7966 / 17–8263 / 23–8571 / 42–9269 / 46–15371 / 31–146
DLI11 / 9–1617 / 15–2224 / 23–2832 / 31–3439 / 34–4141 / 37–4342 / 36–4437 / 32–3928 / 24–3019 / 17–2211 / 11–169 / 7–13
RH %64 / 55–6864 / 57–6662 / 58–6560 / 57–6459 / 57–6359 / 55–6357 / 53–6357 / 53–6459 / 55–6661 / 59–6863 / 57–6764 / 56–68

Each figure is the median across the 20 grid cells holding the 20 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 900:4282 (44.975, 34.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -22.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -11.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.3 °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 20 distinct grid cells holding the 20 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 900:4282 (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 45.00_34.375, lapse-corrected -44 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 277 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.
NativeTurkey-in-Europe, Krym, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Iran, Turkey· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, France, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Baltic States, South European Russia, Ukraine, Altay, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, British Columbia, Ontario, Québec, Montana, Illinois, Connecticut, New York, Vermont, California, Utah, Maryland, Virginia
Kew's description“subshrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker44.671, 34.401 · in the densest population, 10 records (48% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 21 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 14 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 15 km away. 1747 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays 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 21 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Stachys byzantinaStachys byzantinaStachys byzantinaStachys byzantinaStachys byzantinaStachys byzantinaStachys byzantinaStachys byzantina

Photographs: (c) Bobo-X, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Oleg Kosterin, 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 Stachys byzantina, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antioxidant activities of some Lamiaceae plant extracts
Nurgün Erdemoğlu, Nilüfer N. Turan, Iclal Cakõcõ, Bilge Şener (2006) · Phytotherapy Research
Megastigmane glucosides from Stachys byzantina
Yoshio Takeda, Hongjie Zhang, Toshiya Masuda, Gisho Honda (1997) · Phytochemistry
Nutritional Evaluation of Non-Conventional Vegetables in Brazil
LUIS FELIPE LIMA E SILVA, Douglas Correa de Souza, Luciane Vilela Resende, Rita de Cássia Mirela Resende Nassur (2018) · Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências
The influence of plant type on green roof rainfall retention
S. Kemp, P. Hadley, Tijana Blanuša (2018) · Urban Ecosystems
The health benefits of three Hedgenettle herbal teas (Stachys byzantina, Stachys inflata, and Stachys lavandulifolia) - profiling phenolic and antioxidant activities
Mir Babak Bahadori, Gökhan Zengin, Leila Dinparast, Morteza Eskandani (2020) · European Journal of Integrative Medicine
Antimicrobial studies on extracts of four species of Stachys
Katayoun Morteza‐Semnani, M R Mahdavi, F Rahimi, Majid Saeedi (2008) · Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Valor nutricional de hortaliças folhosas não convencionais cultivadas no Bioma Cerrado
Neide Botrel, Sidinéia Freitas, M. J. de O. Fonseca, R. A. de C. e Melo (2020) · Brazilian journal of food technology/Brazilian Journal of Food Technology
Essential oils composition ofStachys byzantina,S. inflata,S. lavandulifolia andS. laxa from Iran
Katayoun Morteza‐Semnani, Mohammad Akbarzadeh, Shayesteh Changizi (2005) · Flavour and Fragrance Journal
Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles from Stachys byzantina K. Koch: characterization, antioxidant, antibacterial, and cytotoxic activity
Fatemeh Yousefbeyk, Sara Dabirian, Saeed Ghanbarzadeh, Diba Eghbali Koohi (2021) · Particulate Science And Technology
Comparison of the Volatile Composition of Stachys persica Gmel. and Stachys byzantina C. Koch. Oils Obtained by Hydrodistillation and Steam Distillation
Mahnaz Khanavi, Abbas Hadjiakhoondi, Gholamreza Amin, Yaghoob Amanzadeh (2004) · Zeitschrift für Naturforschung C
Larvicidal activities of some Iranian native plants against the main malaria vector, Anopheles stephensi.
Mahnaz Khanavi, Hassan Vatandoost, Nafiseh Khosravi Dehaghi, Alireza Sanei-Dehkordi (2013) · PubMed

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