Petasites frigidus(L.) Fr.

arctic sweet coltsfoot

WFO wfo-0000126786 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Petasites frigidus, photographed by F Quiec
fig. a F Quiec, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-06-11 / obs. 205678999
Petasites frigidus, photographed by Randal
fig. b Randal, CC0 1.0 / obs. 204290362
Petasites frigidus, photographed by Braden J. Judson
fig. c Braden J. Judson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 205925705
Petasites frigidus, photographed by Braden J. Judson
fig. d Braden J. Judson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 205917901
Petasites frigidus, photographed by Derek
fig. e Derek, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200568414
Petasites frigidus, photographed by Rob Foster
fig. f Rob Foster, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200960025
Petasites frigidus, photographed by Mary Krieger
fig. g Mary Krieger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197490273
Petasites frigidus, photographed by Randal
fig. h Randal, CC0 1.0 / obs. 196604827

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 54 botanical countries

Regions where Petasites frigidus is native: Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, Chita, Irkutsk, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Krasnoyarsk, Magadan, Mongolia, Tuva, West Siberia, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, Finland, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, Sweden, Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Labrador, Maine, Manitoba, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New York, Newfoundland, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ontario, Oregon, Prince Edward I., Québec, Rhode I., Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Yukon AltayAmurBuryatiyaChitaIrkutskKamchatkaKhabarovskKrasnoyarskMagadanMongoliaTuvaWest SiberiaBaltic StatesCentral European RussiaEast European RussiaFinlandNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwaySwedenAlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutIdahoLabradorMaineManitobaMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMontanaNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew YorkNewfoundlandNorth DakotaNorthwest TerritoriesNova ScotiaNunavutOntarioOregonPrince Edward I.QuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaVermontWashingtonWisconsinWyomingYukon Rhode I.
Native distribution of Petasites frigidus, 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
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Connecticut CNT
Idaho IDA
Labrador LAB
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Montana MNT
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New York NWY
Newfoundland NFL
North Dakota NDA
Northwest Territories NWT
Nova Scotia NSC
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Oregon ORE
Prince Edward I. PEI
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Vermont VER
Washington WAS
Wisconsin WIS
Wyoming WYO
Yukon YUK
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
Chita CTA
Irkutsk IRK
Kamchatka KAM
Khabarovsk KHA
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Magadan MAG
Mongolia MON
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Baltic States BLT EUROPE
Central European Russia RUC
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
Sweden SWE

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 4,123 in flower of 10,817 examined

Peak flowering in Mar. Each bar is the share of Petasites frigidus 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. 4,123 of 10,817 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 1,971 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -26.2 °C -13.2 °C 6.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 12.5 °C 21.5 °C 25.7 °C
Annual rainfall 421 mm 721 mm 2,909 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 33 mm 74 mm 274 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 1,971 research-grade observations of Petasites frigidus 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 35 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.

  • Nardosmia angulosa Kuprian.
  • Nardosmia angulosa Cass.
  • Nardosmia arctica (A.E.Porsild) Á.Löve & D.Löve
  • Nardosmia frigida (L.) Hook.
  • Nardosmia frigida var. frigida
  • Nardosmia nivalis (Greene) Jurtzev
  • Nardosmia palmata (Aiton) Hook.
  • Nardosmia sagittata (Pursh) Hook.
  • Petasites alaskanus Rydb.
  • Petasites arcticus A.E.Porsild
  • Petasites corymbosus (R.Br.) Rydb.
  • Petasites dentatus Blank.
  • Petasites frigidus subsp. arcticus (A.E.Porsild) Cody
  • Petasites frigidus subsp. frigidus
  • Petasites frigidus subsp. nivalis (Greene) Cody
  • Petasites frigidus subsp. palmatus (Aiton) Cody
  • Petasites frigidus var. corymbosus (R.Br.) Cronquist
  • Petasites frigidus var. hyperboreoides Hultén
  • Petasites frigidus var. nivalis (Greene) Cronquist
  • Petasites gracilis Britton
  • Petasites hookerianus Rydb.
  • Petasites hyperboreus Rydb.
  • Petasites nivalis Greene
  • Petasites nivalis subsp. hyperboreus (Rydb.) J.Toman

and 11 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.