Androsace occidentalisPursh

western rockjasmine

WFO wfo-0000534712 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Androsace occidentalis, photographed by Andrew Tree
fig. a Andrew Tree, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-17 / obs. 188775397
Androsace occidentalis, photographed by Andrew Tree
fig. b Andrew Tree, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 187305635
Androsace occidentalis, photographed by Andrew Tree
fig. c Andrew Tree, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186779143
Androsace occidentalis, photographed by Andrew Tree
fig. d Andrew Tree, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186566662
Androsace occidentalis, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. e Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 134730309
Androsace occidentalis, photographed by Sam Kieschnick
fig. f Sam Kieschnick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 125996197
Androsace occidentalis, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. g Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 125324150
Androsace occidentalis, photographed by Sam Kieschnick
fig. h Sam Kieschnick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 116221297

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
223892
Filed as
Androsace occidentalis Pursh
Det. by
N. H. Holmgren 1989-01-01
Collected
A. Tiehm 1985-05-14
Origin
US
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 31 botanical countries

Regions where Androsace occidentalis is native: Alberta, Arizona, Arkansas, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Manitoba, Massachusetts, Mexico Northwest, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming AlbertaArizonaArkansasBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasLouisianaManitobaMassachusettsMexico NorthwestMichiganMinnesotaMissouriMontanaNebraskaNew MexicoNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOntarioSaskatchewanSouth DakotaTexasUtahWisconsinWyoming
Native distribution of Androsace occidentalis, 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
Alberta ABT NORTHERN AMERICA
Arizona ARI
Arkansas ARK
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Louisiana LOU
Manitoba MAN
Massachusetts MAS
Mexico Northwest MXN
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Missouri MSO
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
New Mexico NWM
North Dakota NDA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Texas TEX
Utah UTA
Wisconsin WIS
Wyoming WYO

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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 528 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -17.1 °C -10.8 °C 3.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.2 °C 28.1 °C 35.7 °C
Annual rainfall 308 mm 683 mm 1,019 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 26 mm 60 mm 162 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 528 research-grade observations of Androsace occidentalis 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.

Also published as 12 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.

  • Amadea occidentalis (Pursh) Lunell
  • Androsace arizonica A.Gray
  • Androsace occidentalis f. simplex (Rydb.) G.T.Robbins
  • Androsace occidentalis subsp. arizonica (A.Gray) G.T.Robbins
  • Androsace occidentalis var. arizonica (A.Gray) H.St.John
  • Androsace occidentalis var. occidentalis
  • Androsace occidentalis var. simplex (Rydb.) H.St.John
  • Androsace platysepala Wooton & Standl.
  • Androsace simplex Rydb.
  • Aretia occidentalis (Pursh) MacMill.
  • Primula arizonica (A.Gray) Derganc
  • Primula occidentalis (Pursh) 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.