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An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Primula tetrandra; photograph Ghislain118 (AD) http://www.fleurs-des-montagnes.net, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAGhislain118 (AD) http://www.fleurs-des-montagnes.net, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Primula tetrandra (Suksd.) A.R.Mast & Reveal

Primulaceae · Oregon, Washington +4

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

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Primula tetrandra, photograph tomhilton, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPrimula tetrandra, photograph Dcrjsr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPrimula tetrandra, photograph Ebitz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPrimula tetrandra, photograph Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPrimula tetrandra, photograph Andrey Zharkikh from Salt Lake City, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPrimula tetrandra, photograph Andrey Zharkikh from Salt Lake City, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-17.6°C
Record low -29.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
24°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,132mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
14–53DLI
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 March, 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 tetrandra, synonyms Dodecatheon tetrandrum and Dodecatheon alpinum, is a perennial plant in the primrose family, Primulaceae, known by the common name alpine shooting star.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Primula tetrandra", 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 (827 mm of 1,144 mm) falls in November to March, the cooler part of the year, but the mean nightly low is below freezing in February, March, April, 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 September.

Rain

1,144 mm in the median year at the habitat, 827 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 191 mm, driest month July at 16 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 580 mm to 1,699 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,132 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,144 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: 14 to 53 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 11, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -17.6 °C, the absolute minimum -29.5 °C, 9,851 frost nights in 44 years, 223.9 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -9.0 °C in December (across the grid cells of the range -14.8 °C to -5.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 23.6 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -17.6 °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: 43 to 57% 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 +486 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 tetrandra through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 24 °C; coldest month December, mean nightly low -9.0 °C; 1,144 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.-40°-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost29.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-29.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 14–53RH 43–57%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 245 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 °C0 / -5–41 / -4–43 / -1–77 / 2–1113 / 8–1719 / 15–2324 / 20–2723 / 19–2618 / 15–2213 / 8–164 / 0–80 / -5–3
Night °C-9 / -15–-5-8 / -14–-5-7 / -11–-3-4 / -8–-10 / -4–34 / 1–88 / 6–128 / 6–115 / 2–80 / -4–4-6 / -11–-2-9 / -15–-5
Rain mm191 / 52–285170 / 52–256146 / 58–22983 / 39–12359 / 27–9531 / 17–6416 / 8–5518 / 8–6733 / 17–7077 / 35–106136 / 47–233184 / 58–306
DLI17 / 12–2123 / 18–2733 / 27–3742 / 37–4748 / 44–5152 / 50–5453 / 49–5347 / 44–4939 / 36–4128 / 24–3118 / 14–2314 / 11–19
RH %55 / 48–6057 / 51–6057 / 50–5955 / 50–5751 / 46–5446 / 41–5043 / 39–4743 / 40–4745 / 43–4949 / 46–5254 / 46–5956 / 47–60
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 245 grid cells holding the 518 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 1025:1198 (38.725, -120.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -29.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -17.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.2 °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 245 distinct grid cells holding 518 of the 518 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1025:1198 (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 38.50_-120.000, lapse-corrected +486 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2454 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 keys of the names Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 4005682 (Dodecatheon jeffreyi var. tetrandrum (Suksd.) Jeps., 0 records), 5641589 (Primula tetrandra (Suksd.) A.R.Mast & Reveal, 744 records), 7935084 (Dodecatheon tetrandrum Suksd., 1 record). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeOregon, Washington, Arizona, California, 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 marker38.856, -120.045 · in the densest population, 291 records (51% 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 574 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 518 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 122 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 75 km away. 3 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 56 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 4005682 (Dodecatheon jeffreyi var. tetrandrum (Suksd.) Jeps.): Kew's file holds it as Dodecatheon jeffreyi var. tetrandrum (Suksd.) Jeps. (synonym under Primula tetrandra (Suksd.) A.R.Mast & Reveal); 0 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.Records also from GBIF's key 5641589 (Primula tetrandra (Suksd.) A.R.Mast & Reveal): Kew's file holds it as Primula tetrandra (Suksd.) A.R.Mast & Reveal (accepted); 744 records, from GBIF's download.Records also from GBIF's key 7935084 (Dodecatheon tetrandrum Suksd.): Kew's file holds it as Dodecatheon tetrandrum Suksd. (synonym under Primula tetrandra (Suksd.) A.R.Mast & Reveal); 1 record, 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 574 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 tetrandra, photograph 1did not loadPrimula tetrandra, photograph 2did not loadPrimula tetrandra, photograph 3did not loadPrimula tetrandra, photograph 4did not loadPrimula tetrandra, photograph 5did not loadPrimula tetrandra, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: tomhilton, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Dcrjsr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Ebitz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Andrey Zharkikh from Salt Lake City, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2).

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

Angelica capitellata Angelica capitellata Button parsley Photo: CC BY, Dee Shea HimesAllium validum Allium validum Pacific onion Photo: CC BY, Garth HarwoodCalyptridium umbellatum Calyptridium umbellatum Mount Hood pussypaws Photo: CC0, author not statedDicentra uniflora Dicentra uniflora Steer's-head Photo: CC0, author not statedVeratrum californicum Veratrum californicum California false hellebore Photo: CC0, author not statedErysimum perenne Erysimum perenne Mountain Wallflower 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 tetrandrum; Dodecatheon jeffreyi var. alpinum; Dodecatheon meadia var. alpinum; Dodecatheon jeffreyi var. tetrandrum; Dodecatheon alpinum and 2 more. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Primulaceae
Described by
(Suksd.) A.R.Mast & Reveal
Native to
Oregon, Washington, Arizona +3
Wild records
574 in range · 122 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 tetrandra (Suksd.) A.R.Mast & Reveal (plant_name_id 2608387), 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 answeredasked 2026-10-22this 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; 0 records of GBIF's key 4005682, Dodecatheon jeffreyi var. tetrandrum (Suksd.) Jeps. (Kew's file holds it as Dodecatheon jeffreyi var. tetrandrum (Suksd.) Jeps. (synonym under Primula tetrandra (Suksd.) A.R.Mast & Reveal)): GBIF occurrence search API; 744 records of GBIF's key 5641589, Primula tetrandra (Suksd.) A.R.Mast & Reveal (Kew's file holds it as Primula tetrandra (Suksd.) A.R.Mast & Reveal (accepted)): the GBIF download; 1 record of GBIF's key 7935084, Dodecatheon tetrandrum Suksd. (Kew's file holds it as Dodecatheon tetrandrum Suksd. (synonym under Primula tetrandra (Suksd.) A.R.Mast & Reveal)): the GBIF download; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 38.50_-120.000, lapse-corrected +486 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 60447615-2, POWO 60447615-2
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 22 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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