Species
+

Narcissus papyraceus Ker Gawl.

Běła narcisa, Paper-White Daffodil, Paperwhite, Paperwhite narcissus

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

Narcissus papyraceus, one of a few species known as paperwhite, is a perennial bulbous plant native to the Mediterranean region, from Greece to Portugal plus Morocco and Algeria. The species is considered naturalized in the Azores, Corsica, Texas, California and Louisiana. The white flowers are borne in bunches and are strongly fragrant. It is frequently grown as a house plant, often forced to flower at Christmas.

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

Family
Amaryllidaceae
Described by
Ker Gawl.
Native to
France, Portugal, Spain +6
Wild records
1296 in range· 673 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jul, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
722mm/yr
9 wet months · peak Dec 117 mm (CHELSA)
Light
12–48DLI
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 the genus Narcissus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to February and April in the northern hemisphere (October to February and April at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 722 mm a year, wettest December at 117 mm, driest July at 6 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 48 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 0.0 °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 Chione papyracea (Ker Gawl.) Salisb.; Hermione papyracea (Ker Gawl.) Haw., 1819; Hermione papyracea (Ker Gawl.) Schult. & Schult.f.; Hermione papyratia Haw.; Narcissus linnaeanus subsp. papyraceus (Ker Gawl.) Rouy and 3 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Narcissus, 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 winter growing season, October to February and April in the northern hemisphere (October to February and April 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 (538 mm of 722 mm) falls in October to February and April, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 12.2 °C against a yearly mean of 15.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to August and October.

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 722 mm a year, wettest December at 117 mm, driest July at 6 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

722 mm a year at the habitat, 538 mm of it October to February and April. Wettest month December at 117 mm, driest July at 6 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 576 mm to 1185 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: 12 to 48 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 48 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 9, 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 0.0 °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 0.0 °C, the absolute minimum -4.4 °C, about 4 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells 1.4 °C to 9.7 °C), warmest day 27.9 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.0 °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: 55 to 62% 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 28 °C in Jul; mean night from 5 °C in Jan to 19 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 722 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 825 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -4.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 42.8 °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°frost42.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-4.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 12–48RH 55–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 825 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 / 9–1513 / 9–1615 / 12–1917 / 15–2021 / 18–2425 / 21–2928 / 24–3328 / 24–3224 / 21–2920 / 18–2316 / 12–1813 / 9–16
Night °C5 / 1–106 / 2–108 / 4–1110 / 6–1313 / 10–1516 / 14–1819 / 16–2119 / 16–2117 / 14–1914 / 10–1710 / 6–137 / 3–11
Rain mm81 / 57–12066 / 45–10556 / 42–8870 / 52–11048 / 31–9021 / 9–686 / 2–5010 / 4–6443 / 27–10493 / 69–144111 / 78–159117 / 73–176
DLI15 / 10–1820 / 16–2330 / 24–3336 / 31–4042 / 36–4547 / 39–5048 / 39–5143 / 34–4533 / 27–3623 / 18–2616 / 11–1912 / 9–15
RH %61 / 58–6460 / 58–6359 / 55–6159 / 55–6258 / 54–6257 / 51–6355 / 48–6256 / 49–6359 / 53–6361 / 57–6461 / 59–6462 / 59–65

Each figure is the median across the 825 grid cells holding the 1284 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 1046:3493 (37.675, -5.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.8 °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 825 distinct grid cells holding the 1284 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1046:3493 (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 37.50_-5.625, lapse-corrected -104 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 71 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.
NativeFrance, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, Algeria, Morocco· introduced: Great Britain, Corse, Tunisia, Azores, East Aegean Is., California, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker36.761, -5.371 · in the densest population, 739 records (57% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1296 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 673 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 71 km away. 236 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 12 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 2° block of the 1296 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Narcissus papyraceusNarcissus papyraceusNarcissus papyraceusNarcissus papyraceusNarcissus papyraceusNarcissus papyraceusNarcissus papyraceusNarcissus papyraceus

Photographs: (c) Santiago Martín-Bravo, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Duarte Frade, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Ioannis Magouras, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Evolutionary maintenance of stigma‐height dimorphism in Narcissus papyraceus (Amaryllidaceae)
Juan Arroyo, Spencer C. H. Barrett, Rosario Marchena Hidalgo, William W. Cole (2002) · American Journal of Botany
Pollinator shifts and the loss of style polymorphism in Narcissus papyraceus (Amaryllidaceae)
Rocío Pérez‐Barrales, Juan Arroyo (2010) · Journal of Evolutionary Biology
The role of short-tongued insects in floral variation across the range of a style-dimorphic plant
Rocío Santos‐Gally, Rocío Pérez‐Barrales, Violeta I. Simón, Juan Arroyo (2012) · Annals of Botany
Long‐tongued insects promote disassortative pollen transfer in style‐dimorphic Narcissus papyraceus (Amaryllidaceae)
Violeta Simón‐Porcar, Rocío Santos‐Gally, Juan Arroyo (2013) · Journal of Ecology
Screening of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids in bulbs and tissue cultures of Narcissus papyraceus and four varieties of N. tazetta
Ameneh Tarakemeh, Majid Azizi, Vahid Rowshan, Hassan Salehi (2019) · Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis
Developmental Regulation of the Expression of Amaryllidaceae Alkaloid Biosynthetic Genes in Narcissus papyraceus
Tarun Hotchandani, Justine de Villers, Isabel Desgagné‐Penix (2019) · Genes
Ovarian self-incompatibility inNarcissus papyraceus(Amaryllidaceae) is the result of a pre-zygotic response
Violeta Simón‐Porcar, Alejandra de Castro, M. Herrero, Juan Arroyo (2015) · Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society
New Amaryllidaceae Alkaloids from Narcissus papyraceus Ker-Gawler
Rafael Suau, Rodrigo Rico, Ana I. García, Ana Isabel Gómez (1990) · Heterocycles
The function of the floral corona in the pollination of a Mediterranean style dimorphic daffodil
Rocío Pérez‐Barrales, César A. Abarca, Rocío Santos‐Gally, Florian P. Schiestl (2017) · Plant Biology

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 Narcissus 4 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 68 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.