Species
+

Hosta plantaginea (Lam.) Asch.

August-lily, Corfu Lily, Fragrant plantain lily, Fragrant plantain lily, August lily

Climate known 33 photographs Temperate garden plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

Hosta plantaginea, the fragrant plantain lily or August lily, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to southeast and south-central China, and a garden escapee in scattered locations worldwide. This species and cultivars and hybrids derived from it are the only fragrant hostas. As a wild plant, it is typically found growing in the herb layer of mountain forests, below 2000 m.

Text from Wikipedia, “Hosta plantaginea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Hosta

Hosta is a genus of plants commonly known as hostas, plantain lilies and occasionally by the Japanese name gibōshi. Hostas are widely cultivated as shade-tolerant foliage plants. The genus is placed in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae, and is native to northeast Asia. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Hosta”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
(Lam.) Asch.
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast
Wild records
68 in range· 22 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1462mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 233 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–33DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Hosta, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1462 mm a year, wettest June at 233 mm, driest December at 33 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 33 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -4.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Funkia alba (Andrews) Sweet; Funkia cordata Siebold; Funkia cordata Siebold ex Steud.; Funkia grandiflora Siebold & Zucc.; Funkia grandiflora Siebold & Zucc. ex Lem. and 21 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Hosta, 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 summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1071 mm of 1462 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.6 °C against a yearly mean of 17.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

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 1462 mm a year, wettest June at 233 mm, driest December at 33 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1462 mm a year at the habitat, 1071 mm of it April to September. Wettest month June at 233 mm, driest December at 33 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 979 mm to 2129 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: 16 to 33 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 33 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 36).

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 -4.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -4.0 °C, the absolute minimum -10.6 °C, about 31 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells -3.5 °C to 4.6 °C), warmest day 30.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.0 °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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 64% 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 9 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1462 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 64 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -10.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost34.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-10.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 16–33RH 60–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 64 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C9 / 4–1211 / 7–1415 / 11–1821 / 17–2325 / 21–2728 / 24–3030 / 26–3330 / 26–3327 / 22–2921 / 17–2516 / 12–2011 / 6–15
Night °C1 / -4–53 / -2–77 / 2–1012 / 8–1617 / 14–2021 / 17–2324 / 19–2624 / 19–2520 / 15–2214 / 9–179 / 4–113 / -2–6
Rain mm49 / 9–8462 / 16–11994 / 37–207141 / 57–243200 / 104–306233 / 123–375209 / 143–305169 / 135–261119 / 80–19090 / 57–11863 / 33–8433 / 11–53
DLI16 / 13–1817 / 14–2121 / 17–2526 / 22–3029 / 26–3430 / 27–3433 / 30–3631 / 29–3326 / 22–2921 / 16–2517 / 14–2116 / 13–19
RH %61 / 58–6562 / 58–6662 / 58–6762 / 58–6662 / 59–6764 / 60–6963 / 61–6863 / 61–6862 / 60–6561 / 58–6461 / 58–6460 / 57–64

Each figure is the median across the 64 grid cells holding the 68 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 1245:5738 (27.725, 106.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -10.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.7 °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 64 distinct grid cells holding the 68 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1245:5738 (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 27.50_106.875, lapse-corrected -91 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 892 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, China Southeast· introduced: Czechoslovakia, Romania, South European Russia, Uzbekistan, Japan, Korea, Pennsylvania
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker31.05, 109.41 · in the densest population, 48 records (71% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 68 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 22 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 346 km away. 1642 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 68 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Hosta plantagineaHosta plantagineaHosta plantagineaHosta plantagineaHosta plantagineaHosta plantagineaHosta plantagineaHosta plantaginea

Photographs: (c) Sara Patton, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Summit Metro Parks, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Scott Ward, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0.

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 Hosta plantaginea, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Benzylphenethylamine Alkaloids from Hosta plantaginea with Inhibitory Activity against Tobacco Mosaic Virus and Acetylcholinesterase
Yue‐Hu Wang, Zhongkai Zhang, Fu‐Mei Yang, Qian‐Yun Sun (2007) · Journal of Natural Products
Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities of flavonoids from the flowers of Hosta plantaginea
Junwei He, Li Yang, Zhen‐Qiang Mu, Yuye Zhu (2018) · RSC Advances
Recent insights into the hepatoprotective potential of medicinal plants and plant‐derived compounds
Ramasamy Thilagavathi, Shabbah Begum, Sowfika Dharshini Varatharaj, Arun Kumar Balasubramaniam (2023) · Phytotherapy Research
Seasonal Variation in Cuticular Waxes on Hosta Genotypes Differing in Leaf Surface Glaucousness
Matthew A. Jenks, Carole H. Gaston, Mark S. Goodwin, Jessie A. Keith (2002) · HortScience

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.

Other Hosta 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 52 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.