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Parnassia fimbriata; photograph (c) Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-06

Parnassia fimbriata K.D.Koenig

Parnassiaceae · Alaska, Northwest Territories +13

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Parnassia fimbriata K.D.Koenig: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Banks.

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Parnassia fimbriata, photograph (c) Old Goat, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Parnassia fimbriata, photograph (c) Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, some rights reserved (CC BY)Parnassia fimbriata, photograph (c) Nick T., some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Parnassia fimbriata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedParnassia fimbriata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedParnassia fimbriata, photograph (c) tmax, some rights reserved (CC BY) 72 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-32.0°C
Record low -46.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
19°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,131mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
7–43DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Parnassia fimbriata is a species of flowering plant in the family Celastraceae known by the common name fringed grass of Parnassus. It was first described by Charles Konig. It is native to western North America from Alaska and northwestern Canada to the southern Rocky Mountains, where it is a plant of alpine and subalpine environments, usually in wet areas. Despite the common name, this is not a true grass.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Parnassia fimbriata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (791 mm of 1,110 mm) takes 8 months, September to January, March and May to June. Mean temperature moves 22.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to July, September and November to December.

Rain

1,110 mm in the median year at the habitat, 791 mm of it September to January, March and May to June. Wettest month November at 111 mm, driest month August at 77 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 693 mm to 3,046 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,131 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,110 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: 7 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 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -32.0 °C, the absolute minimum -46.7 °C, 11,044 frost nights in 44 years, 251.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 25.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -14.1 °C in December (across the grid cells of the range -19.5 °C to -5.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 18.6 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -32.0 °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: 54 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 +350 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.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Parnassia fimbriata through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 19 °C; coldest month December, mean nightly low -14.1 °C; 1,110 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.-60°-40°-20°0°20°40°frost25.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-46.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 7–43RH 54–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 1263 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 °C-5 / -11–1-3 / -8–20 / -4–44 / 0–89 / 5–1314 / 11–1819 / 14–2319 / 14–2314 / 9–187 / 1–11-2 / -7–3-6 / -12–0
Night °C-13 / -18–-5-12 / -17–-5-9 / -14–-3-6 / -10–-1-2 / -5–23 / -1–76 / 3–106 / 3–102 / -1–7-4 / -8–2-10 / -15–-3-14 / -20–-5
Rain mm105 / 40–40479 / 34–27986 / 42–27482 / 44–20298 / 60–161106 / 55–16281 / 35–13777 / 34–13485 / 43–15590 / 51–329111 / 48–463110 / 45–410
DLI8 / 4–1715 / 10–2324 / 19–3335 / 29–4241 / 35–4742 / 36–5043 / 36–4938 / 30–4428 / 21–3617 / 11–269 / 5–187 / 3–14
RH %64 / 57–6962 / 57–6661 / 56–6558 / 54–6357 / 52–6357 / 48–6354 / 45–6154 / 45–6056 / 48–6160 / 52–6665 / 56–7064 / 58–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 1263 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (2054 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), 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 825:1325 (48.725, -113.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -46.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -32.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 25.8 °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 1263 distinct grid cells holding 2054 of the 2055 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 825:1325 (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 48.50_-113.750, lapse-corrected +350 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2008 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.
NativeAlaska, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico · 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 marker51.058, -115.793 · in the densest population, 1548 records (61% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “subalpine or subarctic” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 2558 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 2054 of them in the land cells it reads, of 2055 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1080 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 38 km away. 503 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.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 3032582 (Parnassia fimbriata K.D.Koenig): Kew's file holds it as Parnassia fimbriata K.D.Koenig (accepted); 900 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 2558 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Parnassia fimbriata, photograph 1did not loadParnassia fimbriata, photograph 2did not loadParnassia fimbriata, photograph 3did not loadParnassia fimbriata, photograph 4did not loadParnassia fimbriata, photograph 5did not loadParnassia fimbriata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Old Goat, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Nick T., some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) tmax, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Silene parryi Silene parryi Parry's campion Photo: CC0, author not statedPenstemon ellipticus Penstemon ellipticus Rocky ledge penstemon Photo: CC0, author not statedPedicularis bracteosa Pedicularis bracteosa Bracted lousewort Photo: CC0, author not statedSenecio fremontii Senecio fremontii Dwarf mountain ragwort Photo: CC BY, James FowlerGaultheria humifusa Gaultheria humifusa Alpine wintergreen Photo: CC BY, Tyler HackingRanunculus eschscholtzii Ranunculus eschscholtzii Eschscholtz's buttercup Photo: CC BY, J Straka

Other Parnassia 7 in the reference

Parnassia asarifolia Parnassia asarifolia Grass-of-Parnassus Photo: CC0, author not statedParnassia caroliniana Parnassia caroliniana Carolina grass of Parnassus Photo: CC BY, Steven JoynerParnassia delavayi Parnassia delavayi Parnassiaceae Photo: CC BY, Yves BasParnassia glauca Parnassia glauca Fen grass-of-Parnassus Photo: CC BY-SA, jim robertsParnassia nubicola Parnassia nubicola Himalayan bog star Photo: CC BY, P JeganathanParnassia palustris Parnassia palustris Grass-of-Parnassus Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerParnassia wightiana Parnassia wightiana Parnassiaceae Photo: CC BY, Dee Shea Himes

Names & registers

Also known as Parnassia rivularis. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Parnassiaceae
Described by
K.D.Koenig
Native to
Alaska, Northwest Territories, Yukon +12
Wild records
2558 in range · 1080 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 2026-10-22GBIF's key 8382465 is Parnassia fimbriata Banks; the page links Kew's Parnassia fimbriata K.D.Koenig, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 900 records of GBIF's key 3032582, Parnassia fimbriata K.D.Koenig (Kew's file holds it as Parnassia fimbriata K.D.Koenig (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search API
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 48.50_-113.750, lapse-corrected +350 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 792086-1 is Kew's for Parnassia fimbriata K.D.Koenig
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 2026-10-22read from the page's key and its other keys: 1 from GBIF's key 3032582
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 87 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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