75 photographs › At a glance
- Jan, shaded
- Feb, shaded
- Mar, shaded
- Apr
- May
- Jun, under 5 mm of rain
- Jul, under 5 mm of rain
- Aug, under 5 mm of rain
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec, shaded
From few records: 9 records in 7 grid cells. The records.
Summary
Fritillaria viridea is a rare species of flowering plant in the lily family Liliaceae, known by the common name San Benito fritillary. It is endemic to the Central Coast Ranges of California, USA, where it belongs to the chaparral and serpentine soils flora. There are confirmed records of this species from San Benito and Monterey Counties plus unconfirmed reports from Fresno and San Luis Obispo Counties.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Fritillaria viridea", CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the genus · Fritillaria
Fritillaria (fritillaries) is a genus of spring flowering herbaceous bulbous perennial plants in the lily family (Liliaceae). The type species, Fritillaria meleagris, was first described in Europe in 1571, while other species from the Middle East and Asia were also introduced to Europe at that time. The genus has about 130–140 species divided among eight subgenera. More on Wikipedia ›
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Fritillaria", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex, listed under the genus Fritillaria in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “bulbous geophyte”.
Seasons
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (278 mm of 387 mm) falls in December to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 7.4 °C against a yearly mean of 13.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to September.
Rain
387 mm in the median year at the habitat, 278 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 80 mm, driest months (2 at 1 mm); 3 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 373 mm to 912 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 382 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 387 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 54 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -4.2 °C, the absolute minimum -9.3 °C, 1,715 frost nights in 44 years, 39.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 2.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 1.6 °C to 5.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.0 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 40 to 55% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
How this section is made
Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.
Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light. 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.
Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +438 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.
Group. Listed under the genus Fritillaria in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “bulbous geophyte”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.
Climate across the habitat
From few records: this habitat climate is read from 9 records in 7 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.
Habitat months, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 12 °C in Jan and Dec to 30 °C in Jul; mean nightly low from 3 °C in Jan, Feb and Dec to 15 °C in Jul and Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 3 months in a row that tie for it. 387 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 7 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was -9.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 12 / 11–13 | 13 / 11–14 | 14 / 13–15 | 17 / 15–19 | 23 / 19–24 | 27 / 23–28 | 30 / 26–32 | 29 / 26–31 | 26 / 24–28 | 21 / 20–22 | 16 / 15–17 | 12 / 11–13 |
| Night °C | 3 / 2–5 | 3 / 1–5 | 4 / 2–6 | 5 / 4–7 | 9 / 7–10 | 12 / 11–13 | 15 / 14–16 | 15 / 14–16 | 13 / 12–15 | 9 / 8–12 | 6 / 4–8 | 3 / 2–6 |
| Rain mm | 80 / 77–193 | 73 / 71–175 | 60 / 58–139 | 28 / 27–57 | 13 / 12–19 | 3 / 2–3 | 1 | 1 | 6 / 6–9 | 20 / 20–43 | 37 / 35–108 | 65 / 63–163 |
| DLI | 18 / 17–18 | 23 / 22–23 | 33 / 32–33 | 43 / 42–43 | 50 / 50–50 | 54 / 54–54 | 53 / 53–54 | 49 / 48–49 | 40 / 39–41 | 30 / 29–30 | 20 / 19–21 | 16 / 15–16 |
| RH % | 51 / 49–54 | 55 / 54–57 | 54 / 53–56 | 50 / 49–53 | 45 / 45–50 | 42 / 41–47 | 40 / 39–44 | 41 / 39–44 | 43 / 42–47 | 46 / 45–49 | 49 / 48–52 | 52 / 50–54 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Sam Eberhard, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (5).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Fritillaria falcata Talus fritillary Photo: CC0, author not stated
Fremontodendron californicum Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, klicklo
Calochortus venustus Butterfly mariposa lily Photo: CC BY-SA, Brian Finzel
Ceanothus palmeri Palmer's ceanothus Photo: CC0, author not stated
Castilleja martini Camp Martin paintbrush Photo: CC0, author not stated
Pinus coulteri Bigcone pine Photo: CC0, author not statedOther Fritillaria 117 in the reference
Fritillaria acmopetala Liliaceae Photo: CC BY, Ben Costamagna
Fritillaria affinis Checker lily Photo: CC BY-SA, Henry "Nick" Robertson
Fritillaria agrestis Stinkbells Photo: CC0, author not stated
Fritillaria alburyana Liliaceae Photo: CC BY, Averater Fritillaria alfredae Liliaceae 
Fritillaria amana Liliaceae Photo: CC BY, Moustapha Itani Fritillaria anhuiensis Liliaceae Fritillaria ariana Liliaceae Fritillaria armena Liliaceae 
Fritillaria assyriaca Liliaceae Photo: CC0, Dûrzan Fritillaria atrolineata Liliaceae 
Fritillaria atropurpurea Spotted fritillary Photo: CC BY, Whitney Brook Matson all 118 ›Names & registers
Also known as Liliorhiza viridea. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →
Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.50_-120.625, lapse-corrected +438 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rulesopenalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.