Sanicula elataBuch.-Ham. ex D.Don

WFO wfo-0000433368 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Sanicula elata, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. a Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-04-04 / obs. 119354285
Sanicula elata, photographed by Ferncliffe forest wilding
fig. b Ferncliffe forest wilding, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 118589772
Sanicula elata, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. c Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 112123665
Sanicula elata, photographed by Quentin Groom
fig. d Quentin Groom, CC0 1.0 / obs. 57399230
Sanicula elata, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. e Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15877080
Sanicula elata, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. f Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 111508764
Sanicula elata, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. g Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15275073
Sanicula elata, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. h Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15188292

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 Sanicula elata is native: Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Comoros, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Gulf of Guinea Is., Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, China South-Central, China Southeast, Tibet, Yemen, Assam, Borneo, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Vietnam, West Himalaya BurundiCameroonCape ProvincesDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateGulf of Guinea Is.KenyaKwaZulu-NatalLesothoMadagascarMalawiMozambiqueNorthern ProvincesRwandaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabweChina South-CentralChina SoutheastTibetYemenAssamBorneoEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNepalPakistanPhilippinesSulawesiSumateraVietnamWest Himalaya Comoros
Native distribution of Sanicula elata, 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
Burundi BUR AFRICA
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Comoros COM
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Borneo BOR
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
Pakistan PAK
Philippines PHI
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Tibet CHT
Yemen YEM

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 109 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 0.7 °C 6.2 °C 13.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.9 °C 23.7 °C 27.0 °C
Annual rainfall 702 mm 1,055 mm 3,337 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 37 mm 77 mm 325 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 109 research-grade observations of Sanicula elata 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 10 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.

  • Sanicula capensis (Cham. & Schltdl.) Eckl. & Zeyh.
  • Sanicula elata var. partita Kuntze
  • Sanicula europaea subsp. elata (Hamilt.) Hultén
  • Sanicula europaea var. capensis Cham. & Schltdl.
  • Sanicula europaea var. elata (Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don) H.Boissieu
  • Sanicula europaea var. partita (Kuntze) M.Hiroe
  • Sanicula hermaphrodita Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don
  • Sanicula javanica Blume
  • Sanicula montana Reinw. ex Blume
  • Sanicula natalensis Gand.

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.