Beta vulgarisL.

common beet

WFO wfo-0000564998 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Beta vulgaris, photographed by Charles Joynson
fig. a Charles Joynson, CC0 1.0 / 2022-06-04 / obs. 203276809

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.

Native range 44 botanical countries

Regions where Beta vulgaris is native: Algeria, Azores, Canary Is., Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Gulf States, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Yemen, India, Pakistan, Albania, Baleares, Belgium, Bulgaria, Corse, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Kriti, Krym, Netherlands, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Türkiye-in-Europe AlgeriaEgyptLibyaMoroccoTunisiaCyprusEast Aegean Is.Gulf StatesIranIraqKuwaitLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusOmanPalestineSaudi ArabiaSinaiTranscaucasusTürkiyeYemenIndiaPakistanAlbaniaBelgiumBulgariaCorseFranceGermanyGreeceIrelandItalyKritiKrymNetherlandsNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalSiciliaSpainTürkiye-in-Europe AzoresCanary Is.BalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Beta vulgaris, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Baleares BAL
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
Krym KRY
Netherlands NET
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Cyprus CYP ASIA-TEMPERATE
East Aegean Is. EAI
Gulf States GST
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Kuwait KUW
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Oman OMA
Palestine PAL
Saudi Arabia SAU
Sinai SIN
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Yemen YEM
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Azores AZO
Canary Is. CNY
Egypt EGY
Libya LBY
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN
India IND ASIA-TROPICAL
Pakistan PAK

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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 102 in flower of 374 examined

Proportion of examined Beta vulgaris in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 0 25 0% 0% to 13%
Feb 2 33 6% 2% to 20%
Mar 2 31 6% 2% to 21%
Apr 18 56 32% 21% to 45%
May 26 59 44% 32% to 57%
Jun 22 43 51% 37% to 65%
Jul 9 22 41% 23% to 61%
Aug 17 34 50% 34% to 66%
Sep 3 23 13% 5% to 32%
Oct 1 17 6% 1% to 27%
Nov 1 7 14% 3% to 51%
Dec 1 24 4% 1% to 20%

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Beta vulgaris 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. 102 of 374 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 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 1,996 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -0.5 °C 4.8 °C 10.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 17.3 °C 21.6 °C 32.4 °C
Annual rainfall 341 mm 731 mm 1,337 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 8 mm 128 mm 231 mm

It is found where winters bring light frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,996 research-grade observations of Beta vulgaris 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 81 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.

  • Beta adenensis Pamukç.
  • Beta alba DC.
  • Beta altissima Steud.
  • Beta atriplicifolia Rouy
  • Beta bengalensis Roxb.
  • Beta brasiliensis Voss
  • Beta carnulosa Gren.
  • Beta cicla (L.) L.
  • Beta cicla (L.) Pers.
  • Beta cicla var. argentea Krassochkin & Burenin
  • Beta cicla var. viridis Krassochkin & Burenin
  • Beta crispa Tratt.
  • Beta decumbens Moench
  • Beta esculenta Salisb.
  • Beta foliosa Ehrenb. ex Steud.
  • Beta hortensis Mill.
  • Beta hybrida Andrz.
  • Beta incarnata Steud.
  • Beta lutea Steud.
  • Beta marina Crantz
  • Beta maritima L.
  • Beta maritima subsp. atriplicifolia (Rouy) Burenin
  • Beta maritima subsp. danica Krassochkin
  • Beta maritima subsp. marcosii (O.Bolòs & Vigo) Juan & M.B.Crespo

and 57 more.

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.