Androsace maximaL.

greater rockjasmine

WFO wfo-0000534676 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Androsace maxima, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. a Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-08 / obs. 196521737
Androsace maxima, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. b Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 196517536
Androsace maxima, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. c Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 168110651
Androsace maxima, photographed by Bastien Alegot
fig. d Bastien Alegot, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 136272604
Androsace maxima, photographed by Pavel Komkov
fig. e Pavel Komkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 136888947
Androsace maxima, photographed by Оксана Серикова
fig. f Оксана Серикова, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 135525757
Androsace maxima, photographed by Abdenour Kheloufi
fig. g Abdenour Kheloufi, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 132832214
Androsace maxima, photographed by Abdenour Kheloufi
fig. h Abdenour Kheloufi, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 132446906

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
5025888
Filed as
Androsace maxima L.
Det. by
not recorded on this sheet
Collected
not recorded
Origin
not recorded
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 49 botanical countries

Regions where Androsace maxima is native: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Altay, Buryatiya, China North-Central, Chita, Cyprus, Inner Mongolia, Iran, Iraq, Irkutsk, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Krasnoyarsk, Lebanon-Syria, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Tuva, Uzbekistan, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, Austria, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AlgeriaLibyaMoroccoTunisiaAfghanistanAltayBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChitaCyprusInner MongoliaIranIraqIrkutskKazakhstanKirgizstanKrasnoyarskLebanon-SyriaMongoliaNorth CaucasusPalestineSaudi ArabiaTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanTuvaUzbekistanWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaAustriaBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryItalyKrymNW. Balkan Pen.RomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine
Native distribution of Androsace maxima, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Altay ALT
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
Chita CTA
Cyprus CYP
Inner Mongolia CHI
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Irkutsk IRK
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Palestine PAL
Saudi Arabia SAU
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Tuva TVA
Uzbekistan UZB
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK
Austria AUT EUROPE
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
France FRA
Germany GER
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Libya LBY
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 85 in flower of 143 examined

Peak flowering in Mar. Each bar is the share of Androsace maxima observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 85 of 143 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,508 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -25.7 °C -12.1 °C 0.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 21.9 °C 25.5 °C 32.2 °C
Annual rainfall 288 mm 459 mm 921 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 14 mm 65 mm 165 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,508 research-grade observations of Androsace maxima that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 14 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Androsace maxima f. uniflora Bunge ex R.Knuth
  • Androsace maxima subsp. turczaninovii (Freyn) Fed.
  • Androsace maxima var. caucasica Kusn.
  • Androsace maxima var. longifrons Borbás
  • Androsace maxima var. macrantha Bunge ex R.Knuth
  • Androsace maxima var. micrantha Bunge ex R.Knuth
  • Androsace maxima var. stricta Bunge ex R.Knuth
  • Androsace tauscheri Gand.
  • Androsace torrepandoi Gand.
  • Androsace turczaninowii Freyn
  • Aretia maxima (L.) Bubani
  • Megista maxima Fourr.
  • Primula arvensis E.H.L.Krause
  • Primula maxima (L.) Kuntze

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.