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Primula fragrans; photograph Adamschneider, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAAdamschneider, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Primula fragrans A.R.Mast & Reveal

Primulaceae · California, Nevada +1

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

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Primula fragrans, photograph Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPrimula fragrans, photograph Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPrimula fragrans, photograph Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPrimula fragrans, photograph Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPrimula fragrans, photograph Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPrimula fragrans, photograph Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
-12.0°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
23°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
598mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
18–54DLI
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 April, with nights below freezing; no growing season read. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Primula fragrans, synonym Dodecatheon redolens, has the common name scented shooting star. It is a species of flowering plant in the primrose family.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Primula fragrans", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Primula

Primula is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. They include the primrose, a familiar wildflower of banks and verges. Other common species are P. auricula (auricula), P. veris (cowslip), and P. elatior (oxlip). More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season and no growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (507 mm of 680 mm) falls in November to April, the cooler part of the year, but the mean nightly low is below freezing in February, March, April, May, December and January, so the rule reads no growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to October.

Rain

680 mm in the median year at the habitat, 507 mm of it November to April. Wettest months (2 at 111 mm), driest month June at 20 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 286 mm to 1,279 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 598 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 680 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: 18 to 54 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 55).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -12.0 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -15.4 °C to -4.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.5 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is -12.0 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 41 to 50% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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 Primula fragrans through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 23 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -12.0 °C; 680 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 18–54RH 41–50%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 66 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-2 / -6–6-2 / -6–61 / -3–96 / 1–1312 / 7–1818 / 14–2323 / 19–2621 / 18–2617 / 14–2211 / 8–163 / 0–10-2 / -6–6
Night °C-12 / -15–-5-12 / -15–-4-9 / -13–-2-6 / -10–0-1 / -4–55 / 2–109 / 6–149 / 6–134 / 2–9-2 / -4–4-8 / -11–-1-12 / -15–-5
Rain mm111 / 24–232111 / 26–21483 / 29–18147 / 25–9236 / 14–5520 / 4–3127 / 9–4726 / 9–4627 / 11–4437 / 21–6959 / 22–13396 / 22–210
DLI20 / 17–2327 / 23–2937 / 33–4046 / 43–4852 / 49–5254 / 53–5552 / 51–5348 / 46–4940 / 38–4231 / 28–3322 / 19–2518 / 15–21
RH %47 / 45–5150 / 47–5350 / 47–5349 / 44–5248 / 41–5143 / 36–4641 / 37–4542 / 38–4543 / 41–4645 / 42–4845 / 43–5047 / 44–52

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, +1325 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum -27.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -18.3 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 66 grid cells holding the 121 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 1071:1228 (36.425, -118.575). 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 66 distinct grid cells holding 121 of the 121 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1071:1228 (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 36.50_-118.750, lapse-corrected +1325 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 3073 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.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 3169262 (Dodecatheon redolens (Hall) H.J.Thomps., 266 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeCalifornia, Nevada, Utah · 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 marker37.167, -118.485 · in the densest population, 105 records (54% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 196 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 121 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 70 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 66 km away. 3 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 75 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 3169262 (Dodecatheon redolens (Hall) H.J.Thomps.): Kew's file holds it as Dodecatheon redolens (H.M.Hall) H.J.Thomps. (synonym under Primula fragrans A.R.Mast & Reveal); 266 records, from GBIF's download.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 196 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Primula fragrans, photograph 1did not loadPrimula fragrans, photograph 2did not loadPrimula fragrans, photograph 3did not loadPrimula fragrans, photograph 4did not loadPrimula fragrans, photograph 5did not loadPrimula fragrans, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (6).

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

Hemionitis breweri Pteridaceae Angelica lineariloba Angelica lineariloba Poison angelica Photo: CC BY, Brooke SmithLeptosiphon nuttallii Leptosiphon nuttallii Nuttall's linanthus Photo: CC BY, Brooke SmithAconitum columbianum Aconitum columbianum Columbia monkshood Photo: CC0, author not statedPinus balfouriana Pinus balfouriana Foxtail pine Photo: CC0, author not statedErythranthe tilingii Erythranthe tilingii Tiling's monkeyflower Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Primula 204 in the reference

Primula albenensis Primulaceae Primula algida Primula algida Primulaceae Photo: CC BY, Юлия ЗахаренкоPrimula allionii Primula allionii Primulaceae Photo: CC BY, Flavien SaboureauPrimula alpicola Primula alpicola Moonlight primrose Photo: CC BY-SA, peganumPrimula amethystina Primula amethystina Primulaceae Photo: CC BY, Morten RossPrimula amoena Primula amoena Caucasian primrose Photo: CC BY, Екатерина КравцоваPrimula angustifolia Primula angustifolia Alpine primrose Photo: CC BY, Aiva NoringsethPrimula anisodora Primula anisodora Anise primrose Photo: CC BY-SA, Stan ShebsPrimula apennina Primula apennina Primulaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedPrimula aurantiaca Primula aurantiaca Primulaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, SalicynaPrimula aureata Primula aureata Primulaceae Photo: CC BY, desertnaturalistPrimula auricula Primula auricula Auricula Photo: CC BY, Jonas Sielenkämper all 205 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Dodecatheon jeffreyi var. redolens; Dodecatheon redolens. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Primulaceae
Described by
A.R.Mast & Reveal
Native to
California, Nevada, Utah
Wild records
196 in range · 70 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
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Primula fragrans A.R.Mast & Reveal (plant_name_id 2608365), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 266 records of GBIF's key 3169262, Dodecatheon redolens (Hall) H.J.Thomps. (Kew's file holds it as Dodecatheon redolens (H.M.Hall) H.J.Thomps. (synonym under Primula fragrans A.R.Mast & Reveal)): the GBIF download
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.50_-118.750, lapse-corrected +1325 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, +1325 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 60447600-2, POWO 60447600-2
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 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 37 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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