Erysimum leucanthemum(Steph. ex Willd.) B.Fedtsch.

WFO wfo-0000678905 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Erysimum leucanthemum, photographed by Andrew Bazdyrev
fig. a Andrew Bazdyrev, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-05-10 / obs. 134331306
Erysimum leucanthemum, photographed by Konstantin Grebennikov
fig. b Konstantin Grebennikov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 132136253
Erysimum leucanthemum, photographed by Konstantin Grebennikov
fig. c Konstantin Grebennikov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 99961361
Erysimum leucanthemum, photographed by Konstantin Grebennikov
fig. d Konstantin Grebennikov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 99961368
Erysimum leucanthemum, photographed by Konstantin Grebennikov
fig. e Konstantin Grebennikov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 99961372
Erysimum leucanthemum, photographed by Konstantin Grebennikov
fig. f Konstantin Grebennikov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 99961357
Erysimum leucanthemum, photographed by Konstantin Grebennikov
fig. g Konstantin Grebennikov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 99961354
Erysimum leucanthemum, photographed by Konstantin Grebennikov
fig. h Konstantin Grebennikov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 99961346

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 18 botanical countries

Regions where Erysimum leucanthemum is native: Afghanistan, Altay, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Central European Russia, East European Russia, Krym, South European Russia, Ukraine AfghanistanAltayIranKazakhstanKirgizstanMongoliaNorth CaucasusTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTurkmenistanUzbekistanWest SiberiaXinjiangCentral European RussiaEast European RussiaKrymSouth European RussiaUkraine
Native distribution of Erysimum leucanthemum, 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
Iran IRN
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Turkmenistan TKM
Uzbekistan UZB
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Central European Russia RUC EUROPE
East European Russia RUE
Krym KRY
South European Russia RUS
Ukraine UKR

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 88 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -15.9 °C -8.2 °C -3.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.6 °C 30.6 °C 31.7 °C
Annual rainfall 261 mm 302 mm 471 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 47 mm 61 mm 74 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 88 research-grade observations of Erysimum leucanthemum 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 5 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.

  • Cheiranthus leucanthemus Stephan ex Willd.
  • Cheiranthus versicolor M.Bieb.
  • Erysimastrum leucanthemum (Stephan ex Willd.) Rupr.
  • Erysimum leucanthemum subsp. versicolor (M.Bieb.) Schanzer
  • Erysimum versicolor (M.Bieb.) Andrz. ex DC.

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. 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.