Koenigia islandicaL.

island purslane

WFO wfo-0000356850 Accepted WFO 2026-06 7 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–g · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Koenigia islandica, photographed by Matt Pilkington
fig. a Matt Pilkington, CC BY 4.0 / 2018-07-30 / obs. 22456271
Koenigia islandica, photographed by Valerii Glazunov
fig. b Valerii Glazunov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 176357646
Koenigia islandica, photographed by Valerii Glazunov
fig. c Valerii Glazunov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 154749536
Koenigia islandica, photographed by Valerii Glazunov
fig. d Valerii Glazunov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 176357644
Koenigia islandica, photographed by Michael D. Pirie
fig. e Michael D. Pirie, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155327262
Koenigia islandica, photographed by Valerii Glazunov
fig. f Valerii Glazunov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 154749556
Koenigia islandica, photographed by Michael D. Pirie
fig. g Michael D. Pirie, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155327245

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 46 botanical countries

Regions where Koenigia islandica is native: Altay, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, Chita, Irkutsk, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Kirgizstan, Krasnoyarsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Mongolia, Qinghai, Tibet, Tuva, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, Finland, Føroyar, Great Britain, Iceland, North European Russia, Norway, Svalbard, Sweden, Alaska, Alberta, Aleutian Is., British Columbia, Colorado, Greenland, Labrador, Manitoba, Montana, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Québec, Utah, Wyoming, Yukon, Argentina South, Chile South AltayBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChitaIrkutskKamchatkaKazakhstanKhabarovskKirgizstanKrasnoyarskMagadanMongoliaQinghaiTibetTuvaWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaFinlandIcelandNorth European RussiaNorwaySvalbardSwedenAlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaColoradoGreenlandLabradorManitobaMontanaNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioQuébecUtahWyomingYukonArgentina SouthChile South Føroyar
Native distribution of Koenigia islandica, 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
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
Chita CTA
Irkutsk IRK
Kamchatka KAM
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Kirgizstan KGZ
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Kuril Is. KUR
Magadan MAG
Mongolia MON
Qinghai CHQ
Tibet CHT
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Aleutian Is. ALU
British Columbia BRC
Colorado COL
Greenland GNL
Labrador LAB
Manitoba MAN
Montana MNT
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Québec QUE
Utah UTA
Wyoming WYO
Yukon YUK
Finland FIN EUROPE
Føroyar FOR
Great Britain GRB
Iceland ICE
North European Russia RUN
Norway NOR
Svalbard SVA
Sweden SWE
Argentina South AGS SOUTHERN AMERICA
Chile South CLS

Not drawn on the map: Kuril Is., Great Britain, Aleutian Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for these regions, so they are 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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 127 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -34.7 °C -21.0 °C -1.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 5.2 °C 13.3 °C 18.0 °C
Annual rainfall 274 mm 936 mm 2,129 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 14 mm 145 mm 325 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 127 research-grade observations of Koenigia islandica 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 3 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.

  • Koenigia fuegiana Dusén
  • Macounastrum islandicum (L.) Small
  • Polygonum islandicum (L.) Hook.f.

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.