Species
+

Leucojum aestivum L.

Giant Spring Snowflake, Loddon Lily, Lěćolinka, Pózdnja snězyčka

Climate known 57 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
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

Leucojum aestivum, commonly called the summer snowflake, giant snowflake, Loddon lily and rarely snowbell and dewdrop among others, is a plant species widely cultivated as an ornamental. It is native to most of Europe from Spain and Ireland to Ukraine, with the exception of Scandinavia, Russia, Belarus and the Baltic countries. It is also considered native to Turkey, Iran and the Caucasus. It is naturalized in Denmark, South Australia, New South Wales, Nova Scotia and much of the eastern United States.

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

About the genus · Leucojum

Leucojum is a small genus of bulbous plants native to Eurasia belonging to the amaryllis family, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. As currently circumscribed, the genus includes only two known species, most former species having been moved into the genus Acis. Both species are known as snowflakes.

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

Family
Amaryllidaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia +18
Wild records
679 in range· 334 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
871mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 91 mm (CHELSA)
Light
5–36DLI
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 bulb, tuber or caudex by Amaryllidaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 871 mm a year, wettest October at 91 mm, driest April at 49 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -7.0 °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 Leucojum aestivum subsp. pulchellum (Salisb.) Briq.; Leucojum aestivum var. pulchellum (Salisb.) Fiori; Leucojum autumnale Gouan, 1762; Leucojum hernandezianum Schult. & Schult.f., 1829; Leucojum hernandezii Cambess. and 6 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by Amaryllidaceae, which is usually but not always 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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (633 mm of 871 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 14.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

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 871 mm a year, wettest October at 91 mm, driest April at 49 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

871 mm a year at the habitat, 633 mm of it June to January. Wettest month October at 91 mm, driest April at 49 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 638 mm to 982 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: 5 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 36 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 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

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 -7.0 °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 -7.0 °C, the absolute minimum -18.8 °C, about 56 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.0 °C in February (across the envelope cells -2.7 °C to 4.4 °C), warmest day 22.1 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -7.0 °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 68% 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 6 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Feb to 15 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 871 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 503 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -18.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.7 °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°frost32.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-18.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 5–36RH 60–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 503 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 °C6 / 3–106 / 5–1110 / 8–1413 / 11–1717 / 15–2120 / 17–2522 / 19–2822 / 20–2818 / 17–2414 / 14–1910 / 8–146 / 4–11
Night °C1 / -4–41 / -3–43 / 1–65 / 4–99 / 8–1212 / 11–1614 / 13–1915 / 13–1912 / 11–169 / 7–125 / 2–82 / -2–6
Rain mm77 / 49–9360 / 40–7566 / 39–7849 / 41–7763 / 51–7870 / 34–8075 / 18–8872 / 36–9279 / 55–9991 / 58–11286 / 54–11283 / 57–114
DLI6 / 5–1210 / 10–1818 / 16–2728 / 27–3534 / 32–4036 / 33–4535 / 32–4629 / 27–3921 / 18–3012 / 11–197 / 6–135 / 3–10
RH %67 / 59–6865 / 58–6663 / 56–6460 / 56–6260 / 56–6260 / 55–6360 / 54–6361 / 55–6363 / 57–6464 / 60–6566 / 60–6868 / 59–69

Each figure is the median across the 503 grid cells holding the 671 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 832:3656 (48.375, 2.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -18.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -7.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.7 °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 503 distinct grid cells holding the 671 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 832:3656 (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 48.50_3.125, lapse-corrected -55 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 69 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.
NativeAustria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Krym, Ukraine, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Iran, Turkey· introduced: Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland, Spain, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand North, Nova Scotia, Oregon, Illinois, Missouri, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker43.616, 4.079 · in the densest population, 369 records (54% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 679 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 334 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 19 km away. 572 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 8 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 679 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Leucojum aestivumLeucojum aestivumLeucojum aestivumLeucojum aestivumLeucojum aestivumLeucojum aestivumLeucojum aestivumLeucojum aestivum

Photographs: (c) Rebecca Johnson, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Mark Richman, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Daniel Washburn, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Antimalarial activity screening of some alkaloids and the plant extracts from Amaryllidaceae
Bilge Şener, İlkay Erdoğan Orhan, Jutamad Satayavivad (2003) · Phytotherapy Research
Related mannose‐specific lectins from different species of the family Amaryllidaceae
Els J. M. Van Damme, Anthony K. Allen, Willy J. Peumans (1988) · Physiologia Plantarum
Plant Sources of Galanthamine: Phytochemical and Biotechnological Aspects
Strahil Berkov, L. Georgieva, V. Kondakova, A. Atanassov (2009) · Biotechnology & Biotechnological Equipment
N-Alkylated galanthamine derivatives: Potent acetylcholinesterase inhibitors from Leucojum aestivum
Strahil Berkov, Carles Codina, Françesc Viladomat, Jaume Bastida (2008) · Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
Galanthamine production by Leucojum aestivum in vitro systems
Atanas Pavlov, Strahil Berkov, Éric Courot, Tatiana Gocheva (2007) · Process Biochemistry
Effects of ethylene on somatic embryogenesis and galanthamine content in Leucojum aestivum L. cultures
Agata Ptak, A. El. Tahchy, G. Wyżgolik, Max Henry (2010) · Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)
Galanthamine and Related Alkaloids Production by Leucojum aestivum L. Shoot Culture using a Temporary Immersion Technology
Ivan Ivanov, Vasil Georgiev, Milen I. Georgiev, Младенка Илиева (2010) · Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology
Analysis of metabolic variation and galanthamine content in Narcissus bulbs by 1H NMR
Andrea Lubbe, Barbora Pomahačová, Young Hae Choi, Robert Verpoorte (2009) · Phytochemical Analysis
Alkaloid Variability in Leucojum aestivum from Wild Populations
L. Georgieva, Strahil Berkov, V. Kondakova, Jaume Bastida (2007) · Zeitschrift für Naturforschung C
CGC‐MS of alkaloids in Leucojum aestivum plants and their in vitro cultures
Strahil Berkov, Atanas Pavlov, Mladenka Ilieva, Monique Burrus (2005) · Phytochemical Analysis

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 Leucojum 1 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 107 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.