Species
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Hyacinthus orientalis L.

Common Hyacinth, Garden hyacinth, Hyacinth, Wild Hyacinth

Climate known 49 photographs
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

Hyacinthus orientalis, the common hyacinth, garden hyacinth or Dutch hyacinth, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae. It is native to western Asia, from southern Turkey, through Syria and Lebanon to northern Israel. It was introduced to Europe in the 16th century. It is widely cultivated everywhere in the temperate world for its strongly fragrant flowers which appear exceptionally early in the season, and frequently forced to flower at Christmas time.

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

About the genus · Hyacinthus

Hyacinthus is a genus of bulbous herbs and spring-blooming perennials. They are fragrant flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae and are commonly called hyacinths. The genus is native predominantly to the Eastern Mediterranean region from the south of Turkey to the Palestine region, although naturalized more widely.

Text from Wikipedia, “Hyacinth”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine +1
Wild records
72 in range· 7 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Aug, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
788mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Jan 194 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–50DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to February in the northern hemisphere (November to February at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 788 mm a year, wettest January at 194 mm, driest July at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 50 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -2.3 °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 Scilla coronaria Salisb.

Cultivation

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 (606 mm of 788 mm) falls in November to February, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 9.6 °C against a yearly mean of 16.2 °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 788 mm a year, wettest January at 194 mm, driest July at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

788 mm a year at the habitat, 606 mm of it November to February. Wettest month January at 194 mm, driest July at 1 mm; 4 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 555 mm to 1046 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: 17 to 50 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 50 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 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 -2.3 °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 -2.3 °C, the absolute minimum -7.1 °C, about 14 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.2 °C in February (across the envelope cells 0.2 °C to 7.0 °C), warmest day 30.0 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.3 °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: 54 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 12 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Aug; mean night from 3 °C in Feb to 19 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 788 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 34 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -7.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 39.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost39.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-7.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 17–50RH 54–60 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 34 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 °C12 / 8–1512 / 9–1615 / 12–1920 / 16–2424 / 20–2828 / 24–3130 / 26–3330 / 26–3328 / 24–3224 / 20–2818 / 14–2214 / 10–17
Night °C3 / 0–73 / 0–75 / 2–98 / 6–1212 / 10–1616 / 14–1919 / 16–2219 / 17–2217 / 15–2114 / 11–189 / 6–125 / 2–9
Rain mm194 / 107–255152 / 87–20194 / 67–12836 / 23–609 / 6–552 / 1–341 / 1–131 / 1–104 / 2–3635 / 21–87105 / 73–148155 / 104–201
DLI19 / 15–1924 / 21–2533 / 30–3341 / 37–4247 / 43–4850 / 48–5149 / 47–5045 / 42–4638 / 35–3929 / 25–3021 / 16–2217 / 13–18
RH %60 / 58–6260 / 59–6258 / 57–6055 / 52–6054 / 50–6156 / 51–6058 / 53–6160 / 54–6359 / 54–6256 / 53–6255 / 54–6059 / 57–61

Each figure is the median across the 34 grid cells holding the 71 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 1138:4308 (33.075, 35.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -7.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.2 °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 34 distinct grid cells holding the 71 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1138:4308 (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 33.00_35.625, lapse-corrected +326 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 718 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.
NativeIraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, France, Sardegna, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, Cyprus, Korea, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, Arkansas, Mexico Central, Cuba, Haiti
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker33.693, 35.702 · in the densest population, 64 records (89% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 72 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 7 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 87 km away. 1727 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 72 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Hyacinthus orientalisHyacinthus orientalisHyacinthus orientalisHyacinthus orientalisHyacinthus orientalisHyacinthus orientalisHyacinthus orientalisHyacinthus orientalis

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Eleftherios Katsillis, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).

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

Nitrogen-Containing Furanose and Pyranose Analogues from Hyacinthus orientalis
Naoki Asano, Atsushi Kato, Miwa Miyauchi, Haruhisa Kizu (1998) · Journal of Natural Products
Rapid vegetative propagation of Hyacinthus orientalis L. in vitro
Ronald Pierik, A.J.M. Post (1975) · Scientia Horticulturae
Isolation of a differentially spliced C-type flower specific AG-like MADS-box gene from Crocus sativus and characterization of its expression
Athanasios Tsaftaris, Konstantinos Pasentsis, Alexios N. Polidoros (2005) · Biologia Plantarum
Spatial and temporal localization of homogalacturonans in Hyacinthus orientalis L. ovule cells before and after fertilization
Katarzyna Niedojadło, Malwina Hyjek‐Składanowska, Elżbieta Bednarska‐Kozakiewicz (2014) · Plant Cell Reports
Root Contraction in Hyacinthus orientalis
Kalpana Wilson, Jain Honey (1966) · Annals of Botany

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.

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 64 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.