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Notholirion macrophyllum (D.Don) Boiss.

Liliaceae · China South-Central, Tibet +2 · listed by its family as a bulb, tuber or caudex

Photographs not checked iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
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Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-11.4°C
Record low -18.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
15°C
Jun, Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,132mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–43DLI
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 summers: the rain comes June to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Notholirion macrophyllum is a species of flowering plant in the lily family, Liliaceae. They are bulbous flowering plants originating in Asia. N. macrophyllum is the smallest species in the family, with a height of 20–25 cm. The leaves are basal, 30–40 cm long and about 2 cm wide. from June to August N. macrophyllum produces a racemose inflorescence bearing 2–4 (occasionally 6) pale violet to purple or red, bell-shaped, hermaphrodite, flowers with dark purple flecks in the throat, about 5 cm in length. After flowering the plant produces a capsular fruit.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Notholirion macrophyllum", 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 summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,472 mm of 1,991 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 11.9 °C against a yearly mean of 5.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

1,991 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,472 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 483 mm, driest month November at 20 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,376 mm to 3,015 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,132 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,991 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: 25 to 43 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -11.4 °C, the absolute minimum -18.5 °C, 7,663 frost nights in 44 years, 174.2 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 19.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -9.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -17.9 °C to -3.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 15.2 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -11.4 °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: 55 to 74% 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 +217 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 Notholirion macrophyllum through the yearWarmest months June, July and August, mean daily high 15 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -9.1 °C; 1,991 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.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost19.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-18.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 25–43RH 55–74%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 19 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 °C2 / -7–73 / -7–87 / -3–1110 / 1–1413 / 5–1715 / 8–1815 / 10–1815 / 9–1814 / 7–1711 / 3–157 / -1–125 / -4–9
Night °C-9 / -18–-4-8 / -18–-3-5 / -15–1-2 / -11–32 / -6–77 / 0–109 / 4–129 / 4–116 / 0–102 / -7–5-3 / -12–2-6 / -15–-2
Rain mm34 / 20–4644 / 33–8072 / 42–12495 / 51–155142 / 77–212312 / 190–473483 / 335–799396 / 254–793281 / 184–47691 / 59–13220 / 12–3521 / 13–29
DLI27 / 20–3332 / 24–3939 / 30–4543 / 33–4942 / 33–4735 / 27–3925 / 22–3026 / 24–3028 / 24–3132 / 25–3528 / 21–3226 / 19–30
RH %56 / 49–6557 / 51–6858 / 53–7062 / 54–7065 / 59–7170 / 66–7574 / 72–7873 / 71–7770 / 67–7461 / 54–6857 / 49–6655 / 47–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 19 grid cells holding the 24 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 1250:5417 (27.475, 90.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -18.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -11.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 19.9 °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 19 distinct grid cells holding 24 of the 24 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1250:5417 (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 27.50_90.625, lapse-corrected +217 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 3351 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.
NativeChina South-Central, Tibet, East Himalaya, Nepal · 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 marker28.083, 85.414 · in the densest population, 27 records (59% 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 46 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 24 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 17 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 487 km away. 22 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 46 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built; GBIF's observation records with coordinates hold none. Not a statement that none exist.

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

Allium wallichii Allium wallichii Himalayan onion Photo: CC BY, Wang.QGRhododendron campanulatum Rhododendron campanulatum Bell-flowered Rhododendron Photo: CC BY, Andrew LieRhododendron cinnabarinum Rhododendron cinnabarinum Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, Morten RossLilium nepalense Lilium nepalense Nepal lily Photo: CC BY, Sagnik Dutta RoyPrimula gracilipes Primula gracilipes Primulaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedRosa sericea Rosa sericea Silky rose Photo: CC BY, chintan sheth

Other Notholirion 2 in the reference

Notholirion bulbuliferum Liliaceae Notholirion thomsonianum Notholirion thomsonianum Rosy Himalayan Lily Photo: CC BY, Ramnarayan K

Names & registers

Also known as Fritillaria hookeri; Fritillaria macrophylla; Lilium hookeri; Lilium macrophyllum. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Liliaceae
Described by
(D.Don) Boiss.
Native to
China South-Central, Tibet, East Himalaya +1
Wild records
46 in range · 17 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 27.50_90.625, lapse-corrected +217 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 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 nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
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 14 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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