Species
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Scilla messeniaca Boiss.

Greek Squill

Climate known 8 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

About the genus · Scilla

Scilla is a genus of about 30 to 80 species of bulb-forming perennial herbaceous plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae. Sometimes called the squills in English, they are native to woodlands, subalpine meadows, and seashores throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East. A few species are also naturalized in Australasia and North America. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Scilla”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
Boiss.
Native to
Greece
Wild records
23 in range· 7 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jul, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1134mm/yr
9 wet months · peak Dec 234 mm (CHELSA)
Light
14–48DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to February in the northern hemisphere (October to February at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1134 mm a year, wettest December at 234 mm, driest July at 10 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 48 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 1.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Schnarfia messeniaca (Boiss.) Speta.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to February in the northern hemisphere (October to February at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (869 mm of 1134 mm) falls in October to February, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 11.1 °C against a yearly mean of 15.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to August.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1134 mm a year, wettest December at 234 mm, driest July at 10 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1134 mm a year at the habitat, 869 mm of it October to February. Wettest month December at 234 mm, driest July at 10 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 913 mm to 1185 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 48 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 48 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 1.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 1.1 °C, the absolute minimum -3.4 °C, about 1 frost night a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.4 °C in February (across the envelope cells 1.8 °C to 6.4 °C), warmest day 28.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 51 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 10 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Jul; mean night from 5 °C in Feb to 21 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 1134 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 8 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -3.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost35.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-3.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 14–48RH 51–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 8 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C10 / 8–1210 / 9–1213 / 11–1416 / 14–1721 / 19–2226 / 23–2729 / 26–2929 / 26–2925 / 22–2620 / 18–2215 / 13–1712 / 10–13
Night °C6 / 2–75 / 2–67 / 3–810 / 6–1114 / 10–1518 / 15–1920 / 17–2221 / 17–2218 / 14–1915 / 11–1611 / 7–127 / 4–9
Rain mm180 / 131–193123 / 96–13086 / 77–9463 / 52–6730 / 25–3611 / 9–1610 / 9–1419 / 15–2146 / 41–50105 / 94–110227 / 160–243234 / 163–247
DLI17 / 15–1822 / 20–2330 / 28–3138 / 37–3943 / 43–4448 / 48–4947 / 47–4743 / 42–4335 / 33–3625 / 23–2617 / 15–1814 / 12–15
RH %62 / 60–6361 / 60–6259 / 58–6057 / 55–5855 / 53–5752 / 49–5551 / 49–5453 / 50–5656 / 54–5858 / 57–6062 / 60–6363 / 62–64

Each figure is the median across the 8 grid cells holding the 23 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1060:4043 (36.975, 22.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 8 distinct grid cells holding the 23 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1060:4043 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 37.00_21.875, lapse-corrected +149 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 349 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeGreece· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker36.898, 22.248 · in the densest population, 22 records (96% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 23 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 7 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 11 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 23 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Scilla messeniacaScilla messeniacaScilla messeniacaScilla messeniacaScilla messeniacaScilla messeniacaScilla messeniaca

Photographs: (c) connyklein, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); connyklein, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (4).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Scilla messeniaca, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Scilla messeniaca Boiss.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Scilla messeniaca Boiss.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Scilla messeniaca Boiss.
Natural History Museum Vienna (2026)
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2025) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2025) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Biogeographical relations of the mountainous massif of Taigetos (Peloponnisos)
Χαράλαμπος Κυριακόπουλος (2024) · Νημερτής

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Scilla 84 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 9 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.