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Lilium occidentale; photograph (c) Trevor Van Loon, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Trevor Van Loon, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2024-06-29

Lilium occidentale Purdy

Western lily; Eureka lily

Liliaceae · Oregon, California · listed by its family as a bulb, tuber or caudex

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Lilium occidentale, photograph (c) Ernesto Chavez-Velasco, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lilium occidentale, photograph (c) Ernesto Chavez-Velasco, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lilium occidentale, photograph (c) Ernesto Chavez-Velasco, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lilium occidentale, photograph (c) Ernesto Chavez-Velasco, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lilium occidentale, photograph (c) Trevor Van Loon, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lilium occidentale, photograph (c) Trevor Van Loon, some rights reserved (CC BY) 28 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
5.1°C
Record low -0.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
18°C
Jul, Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,521mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
10–50DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes November to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Lilium occidentale is a rare North American species of lily known by the common name western lily. Its species name 'Occidentale' means 'westernmost' and refers to its location along the West Coast. It is native to northwestern California and southwestern Oregon. It grows in coastal prairie habitat, swamps and stagnant bogs with Drosera species, bluffs and sandy cliffs, and seaside spruce forests. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Lilium occidentale", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Lilium

Lilium is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large and often prominent flowers. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. Most species are native to the Northern Hemisphere and their range is temperate climates and extends into the subtropics. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Lilium", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex, listed under the family Liliaceae 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 (1,226 mm of 1,564 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 9.5 °C against a yearly mean of 11.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

1,564 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,226 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 326 mm, driest month July at 8 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,422 mm to 2,685 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,521 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,564 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: 10 to 50 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 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 5.1 °C, the absolute minimum -0.7 °C, 1 frost night in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 21.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 6.7 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -1.9 °C to 7.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 18.0 °C in September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 65% 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 -98 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 family Liliaceae 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

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Lilium occidentale through the yearWarmest months July, August and September, mean daily high 18 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 6.7 °C; 1,564 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°30°frost21.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-0.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 10–50RH 62–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 15 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C12 / 7–1212 / 8–1312 / 9–1313 / 11–1514 / 13–1716 / 15–2018 / 16–2518 / 16–2518 / 17–2316 / 15–1913 / 9–1412 / 6–12
Night °C7 / -2–87 / -2–87 / -1–88 / 0–99 / 4–1011 / 7–1212 / 10–1412 / 10–1412 / 8–1411 / 5–129 / 1–107 / -2–8
Rain mm258 / 240–431208 / 186–355203 / 178–341118 / 95–20560 / 54–11928 / 20–588 / 3–1212 / 8–1821 / 15–4091 / 78–173231 / 195–406326 / 291–557
DLI12 / 11–1317 / 17–1926 / 25–2835 / 35–3743 / 43–4548 / 47–5050 / 49–5144 / 43–4535 / 34–3724 / 23–2514 / 13–1510 / 10–11
RH %63 / 57–6764 / 59–6665 / 60–6664 / 58–6665 / 56–6765 / 53–6863 / 49–7064 / 49–7063 / 48–6862 / 52–6863 / 59–6863 / 58–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 15 grid cells holding the 17 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 986:1115 (40.675, -124.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 21.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 15 distinct grid cells holding 17 of the 17 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 986:1115 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 40.50_-124.375, lapse-corrected -98 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 37 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeOregon, California · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker40.649, -124.27 · in the densest population, 61 records (81% of those in range)
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 75 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 17 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 6 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 131 km away. 8 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 58 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 75 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Lilium occidentale, photograph 1did not loadLilium occidentale, photograph 2did not loadLilium occidentale, photograph 3did not loadLilium occidentale, photograph 4did not loadLilium occidentale, photograph 5did not loadLilium occidentale, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Ernesto Chavez-Velasco, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Trevor Van Loon, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Helenium bolanderi Helenium bolanderi Coastal sneezeweed Photo: CC BY, Ryan DonnellyAbronia latifolia Abronia latifolia Yellow sand-verbena Photo: CC BY, Murray McGooganMorella californica Morella californica California wax-myrtle Photo: CC BY, Bruce Homer-SmithAngelica hendersonii Angelica hendersonii Henderson's angelica Photo: CC BY, Ryan DonnellyGilia millefoliata Gilia millefoliata Dark-eyed gilia Photo: CC0, author not statedPolygonum paronychia Polygonum paronychia Beach knotweed Photo: CC BY, Konshau Duman

Other Lilium 83 in the reference

Lilium akkusianum Lilium akkusianum Liliaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Ernst GügelLilium albanicum Lilium albanicum Albanian Lily Photo: CC BY, SokratisLilium amabile Lilium amabile Korean lily Photo: CC0, Étienne Lacroix-CarignanLilium apertum Lilium apertum Liliaceae Photo: CC BY, Wang.QGLilium auratum Lilium auratum Gold-band lily Photo: CC BY, 村山史世　（Fumiyo MURAYAMA)Lilium bakerianum Lilium bakerianum Baker's lily Photo: CC BY, Jiao Sun (孙娇)Lilium bolanderi Lilium bolanderi Bolander's lily Photo: CC BY, Parker James LloydLilium brownii Lilium brownii Brown's lily Photo: CC BY, Emilie PLilium bulbiferum Lilium bulbiferum Orange lily Photo: CC BY, Thomas GalewskiLilium callosum Lilium callosum Slim-stem lily Photo: CC BY, Oleg KosterinLilium canadense Lilium canadense Canada lily Photo: CC BY, Forest Botial-JarvisLilium candidum Lilium candidum Madonna lily Photo: CC BY, yelena_antipova all 84 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Liliaceae
Described by
Purdy
Native to
Oregon, California
Wild records
75 in range · 6 open

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 record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 5 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (5 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 40.50_-124.375, lapse-corrected -98 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.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 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.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 rules
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every 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 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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