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Primula frigida; photograph Denali National Park and Preserve (NPS Photo/Jacob W. Frank), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Public domainDenali National Park and Preserve (NPS Photo/Jacob W. Frank), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Primula frigida (Cham. & Schltdl.) A.R.Mast & Reveal

Primulaceae · Magadan, Alaska +4

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

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Primula frigida, photograph NPS / Jacob W. Frank: Denali National Park and Preserve, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsPrimula frigida, photograph Jacob W. Frank, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsPrimula frigida, photograph Jacob W. Frank, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 4 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-29.7°C
Record low -40.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
14°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
731mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
0–37DLI
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 November, 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

Primula frigida, synonym Dodecatheon frigidum, commonly called the western arctic shootingstar, is a plant species found in arctic and subarctic regions in the northwestern part of North America and in Asiatic Russia.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Primula frigida", 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 summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (498 mm of 709 mm) falls in June to November, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 1.4 °C against a yearly mean of -5.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to May.

Rain

709 mm in the median year at the habitat, 498 mm of it June to November. Wettest month August at 115 mm, driest month April at 26 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 486 mm to 1,276 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 731 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 709 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: 0 to 37 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 0, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -29.7 °C, the absolute minimum -40.5 °C, 10,847 frost nights in 44 years, 246.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 17.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -22.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -28.1 °C to -17.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 14.1 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -29.7 °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: 61 to 67% 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 -53 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 Primula frigida through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 14 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -22.2 °C; 709 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.-50°-40°-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°frost17.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-40.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 0–37RH 61–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 432 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-17 / -22–-12-15 / -21–-10-10 / -17–-6-3 / -8–14 / 0–812 / 8–1514 / 11–1712 / 9–146 / 3–8-3 / -9–0-12 / -18–-7-15 / -20–-11
Night °C-22 / -28–-17-21 / -27–-16-18 / -24–-13-10 / -15–-7-3 / -5–04 / 2–77 / 5–95 / 3–70 / -4–3-9 / -15–-4-17 / -24–-12-20 / -26–-16
Rain mm39 / 20–8835 / 18–7728 / 14–6226 / 13–5840 / 22–6276 / 37–127112 / 61–179115 / 72–18086 / 53–16663 / 36–12546 / 23–11743 / 22–97
DLI1 / 0–36 / 3–816 / 14–1929 / 26–3337 / 34–4137 / 34–4030 / 28–3422 / 19–2615 / 12–177 / 5–92 / 1–40 / 0–2
RH %66 / 59–7566 / 59–7363 / 58–7062 / 57–6961 / 55–6861 / 56–6762 / 58–6864 / 59–6865 / 61–6867 / 62–7267 / 61–7467 / 60–75
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 432 grid cells holding the 606 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 501:150 (64.925, -172.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -40.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -29.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 17.1 °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 432 distinct grid cells holding 606 of the 606 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 501:150 (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 65.00_-172.500, lapse-corrected -53 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 46 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: 3169264 (Dodecatheon frigidum Cham. & Schltdl., 1010 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeMagadan, Alaska, Northwest Territories, Yukon, British Columbia, Saskatchewan · 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 marker59.711, -136.624 · in the densest population, 150 records (17% 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 878 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 606 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 593 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 3 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 272 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 3169264 (Dodecatheon frigidum Cham. & Schltdl.): Kew's file holds it as Dodecatheon frigidum Cham. & Schltdl. (synonym under Primula frigida (Cham. & Schltdl.) A.R.Mast & Reveal); 1,010 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 878 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 frigida, photograph 1did not loadPrimula frigida, photograph 2did not loadPrimula frigida, photograph 3did not load

Photographs: NPS / Jacob W. Frank: Denali National Park and Preserve, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Jacob W. Frank, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (2).

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

Diapensia obovata Diapensia obovata Alaska diapensia Photo: CC0, author not statedSalix rotundifolia Salix rotundifolia Round-leaved willow Photo: CC0, author not statedArnica griscomii Arnica griscomii Snow arnica Photo: CC BY, Syd CanningsSaxifraga flagellaris Saxifraga flagellaris Stoloniferous saxifrage Photo: CC0, author not stated Hesperochloa altaica Poaceae Artemisia tilesii Artemisia tilesii Tilesius wormwood Photo: CC BY, Matt Berger

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 meadia var. frigidum; Dodecatheon frigidum. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Primulaceae
Described by
(Cham. & Schltdl.) A.R.Mast & Reveal
Native to
Magadan, Alaska, Northwest Territories +3
Wild records
878 in range · 593 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 frigida (Cham. & Schltdl.) A.R.Mast & Reveal (plant_name_id 2608367), 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; 1010 records of GBIF's key 3169264, Dodecatheon frigidum Cham. & Schltdl. (Kew's file holds it as Dodecatheon frigidum Cham. & Schltdl. (synonym under Primula frigida (Cham. & Schltdl.) 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 65.00_-172.500, lapse-corrected -53 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 60447602-2, POWO 60447602-2
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 40 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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