Legousia hybrida(L.) Delarbre

Venus's Looking-glass

WFO wfo-0000814819 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Legousia hybrida, photographed by David Ballesteros
fig. a David Ballesteros, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-05-02 / obs. 131298362
Legousia hybrida, photographed by Sergey Cherkasov
fig. b Sergey Cherkasov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 124529810
Legousia hybrida, photographed by Andrea Meucci
fig. c Andrea Meucci, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 122695412
Legousia hybrida, photographed by Yves Bas
fig. d Yves Bas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 196929999
Legousia hybrida, photographed by portioid
fig. e portioid, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 8484218
Legousia hybrida, photographed by Ljaž
fig. f Ljaž, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 193460682
Legousia hybrida, photographed by Bastien Alegot
fig. g Bastien Alegot, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 136273176
Legousia hybrida, photographed by Татьяна Прозорова
fig. h Татьяна Прозорова, CC0 1.0 / obs. 35724089

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 37 botanical countries

Regions where Legousia hybrida is native: Algeria, Azores, Canary Is., Libya, Madeira, Morocco, Tunisia, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Palestine, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Albania, Baleares, Belgium, Bulgaria, Corse, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Krym, Netherlands, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AlgeriaLibyaMoroccoTunisiaCyprusEast Aegean Is.IranLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusPalestineTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanAlbaniaBelgiumBulgariaCorseFranceGermanyGreeceItalyKritiKrymNetherlandsNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalRomaniaSiciliaSpainSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine AzoresCanary Is.MadeiraBalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Legousia hybrida, 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
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
Krym KRY
Netherlands NET
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Cyprus CYP ASIA-TEMPERATE
East Aegean Is. EAI
Iran IRN
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Palestine PAL
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Azores AZO
Canary Is. CNY
Libya LBY
Madeira MDR
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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 290 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -3.0 °C -0.2 °C 4.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 21.5 °C 25.1 °C 29.4 °C
Annual rainfall 473 mm 809 mm 1,239 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 27 mm 149 mm 196 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 290 research-grade observations of Legousia hybrida 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 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.

  • Campanula hybrida L.
  • Campanula spuria Pall. ex Roem. & Schult.
  • Legousia balearica Sennen
  • Legousia conferta Samp.
  • Legousia parviflora Gray
  • Legousia skvortsovii Proskur.
  • Legousia speculum-veneris var. maroccana Pau & Font Quer
  • Pentagonia hybrida (L.) Kuntze
  • Prismatocarpus confertus Moench
  • Prismatocarpus hybridus (L.) L'Hér.
  • Specularia calycina Lojac.
  • Specularia conferta E.H.L.Krause
  • Specularia hybrida (L.) A.DC.
  • Specularia parviflora Bubani

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.