Colchicum balansae Planch.
White Autumn Crocus
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Colchicum balansae is a variable species of flowering plant in the family Colchicaceae, producing white to rosy-purple flowers in the autumn season. The flowers are borne low to the ground, but can come from bulbs 50 cm (20") below the soil surface. The leaves are absent at flowering time; they start growing in the spring and can reach up to 30 cm (12") long. This species is native to southern Turkey and to Greece.
Text from Wikipedia, “Colchicum balansae”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Colchicum
Colchicum is a genus of perennial flowering plants containing around 160 species which grow from bulb-like corms. It is a member of the botanical family Colchicaceae, and is native to West Asia, Europe, parts of the Mediterranean coast, down the East African coast to South Africa and the Western Cape. In this genus, the ovary of the flower is underground. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Colchicum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Colchicum candidum Schott & Kotschy; Colchicum candidum Schott & Kotschy ex Baker.
Cultivation
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Colchicum, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.
Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to February in the northern hemisphere (November to February at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (445 mm of 619 mm) falls in November to February, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 13.3 °C against a yearly mean of 17.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to August.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 619 mm a year, wettest January at 132 mm, driest July at 0 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
619 mm a year at the habitat, 445 mm of it November to February. Wettest month January at 132 mm, driest July at 0 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 543 mm to 1124 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 51 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 51 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor 4.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 4.4 °C, the absolute minimum -0.9 °C, 1 frost night in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 9.4 °C in February (across the envelope cells -3.0 °C to 10.9 °C), warmest day 26.8 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 52 to 60% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 12 / 5–14 | 12 / 5–14 | 13 / 10–15 | 17 / 15–17 | 20 / 19–21 | 24 / 23–26 | 27 / 25–29 | 27 / 26–30 | 25 / 24–27 | 22 / 19–23 | 17 / 12–18 | 14 / 7–15 |
| Night °C | 10 / -3–12 | 9 / -3–11 | 11 / -0–12 | 13 / 4–14 | 16 / 9–18 | 20 / 13–21 | 22 / 16–24 | 23 / 17–25 | 22 / 13–23 | 19 / 9–20 | 15 / 3–16 | 12 / -1–13 |
| Rain mm | 132 / 118–222 | 95 / 86–161 | 67 / 57–106 | 35 / 28–74 | 16 / 14–57 | 2 / 1–22 | 0 / 0–9 | 0 / 0–11 | 7 / 6–23 | 47 / 39–77 | 92 / 78–184 | 126 / 107–251 |
| DLI | 17 / 16–17 | 23 / 22–24 | 32 / 31–33 | 40 / 38–40 | 47 / 45–47 | 51 / 50–51 | 51 / 50–51 | 46 / 45–46 | 37 / 37–38 | 27 / 27–28 | 19 / 18–20 | 15 / 14–15 |
| RH % | 59 / 58–61 | 59 / 57–61 | 59 / 57–60 | 57 / 54–59 | 57 / 52–60 | 54 / 49–57 | 52 / 46–56 | 53 / 48–58 | 55 / 49–59 | 58 / 52–60 | 59 / 57–61 | 60 / 58–62 |
Each figure is the median across the 9 grid cells holding the 9 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1074:4158 (36.275, 27.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 9 distinct grid cells holding the 9 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1074:4158 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.50_28.125, lapse-corrected +317 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 361 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Eleftherios Katsillis, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); Bernard Ducarme, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF.
Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Colchicum balansae, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Colchicum macrophyllum Large-leaved Autumn Crocus
Colchicum variegatum Colchicaceae
Colchicum pusillum Small Autumn Crocus
Drimia numidica Numidian Squill
Romulea tempskyana Tempsky's Sand Crocus
Colchicum rechingeri Libyan Meadow SaffronOther Colchicum 160 in the reference
Colchicum actupii Colchicaceae
Colchicum albanense Albany Men-in-a-Boat
Colchicum albomarginatum Whiterim Men-in-a-Boat
Colchicum alpinum Alpine Autumn Crocus Colchicum amphigaripense Colchicaceae
Colchicum androcymbioides Colchicaceae Colchicum antepense Colchicaceae
Colchicum antilibanoticum Mount Hermon Meadow Saffron
Colchicum arenarium Sand Autumn Crocus
Colchicum arenasii Colchicaceae
Colchicum asteranthum Colchicaceae
Colchicum asteroides Star-in-a-Boat all 161 ›History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 2 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.