Species
+

Zephyranthes carinata Herb.

Pink Rain Lily, Rose Pink Zephyr Lily, Rosepink zephyr lily, jiu lian

Climate known 52 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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.

Summary

Zephyranthes carinata, commonly known as the rosepink zephyr lily or pink rain lily, is a perennial flowering plant native to Mexico, Colombia and Central America. It is also widely cultivated as an ornamental and naturalized in the West Indies, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, the southeastern United States from Texas to Florida, Zimbabwe, South Africa, China, Korea, the Ryukyu Islands, Assam, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Solomon Islands, Queensland, Society Islands, Kiribati, and Caroline Islands.

Text from Wikipedia, “Zephyranthes carinata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Zephyranthes

Zephyranthes is a genus of temperate and tropical bulbous plants in the Amaryllis family, subfamily Amaryllidoideae, native to the Americas and widely cultivated as ornamentals. Following the expansion of the genus in 2019, which now includes the genera Habranthus and Sprekelia, there are about 200 recognized species, as well as numerous hybrids and cultivars. Common names for species in this genus include fairy lily, rainflower, zephyr lily, magic lily, Atamasco lily, and rain lily.

Text from Wikipedia, “Zephyranthes”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Amaryllidaceae
Described by
Herb.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southwest +6
Wild records
346 in range· 105 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Apr, mean day; nights 15 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1539mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 246 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by Amaryllidaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.8 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1539 mm a year, wettest September at 246 mm, driest March at 40 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 6.4 °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 Amaryllis carinata (Herb.) Spreng.; Amaryllis concinna R.Morris; Amaryllis lindleyana Schult. & Schult.f.; Atamosco carinata (Herb.) P.Wilson; Hippeastrum carinatum (Herb.) Christenh. & Byng and 3 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by Amaryllidaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.8 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

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

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1214 mm of 1539 mm) falls in May to October. The temperature curve is flat, 3.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

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 1539 mm a year, wettest September at 246 mm, driest March at 40 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1539 mm a year at the habitat, 1214 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 246 mm, driest March at 40 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 731 mm to 3029 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: 28 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 40 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

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 6.4 °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 6.4 °C, the absolute minimum -1.2 °C, 2 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 11.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 6.2 °C to 19.0 °C), warmest day 25.6 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.4 °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: 61 to 68% 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 21 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Apr; mean night from 12 °C in Jan to 16 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1539 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 274 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -1.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.7 °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°frost37.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-1.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 28–40RH 61–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 274 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 °C21 / 18–2723 / 19–2824 / 20–3026 / 20–3125 / 20–3124 / 20–3024 / 20–2924 / 20–2923 / 20–2922 / 19–2822 / 19–2721 / 18–27
Night °C12 / 6–1912 / 7–2013 / 9–2115 / 10–2215 / 11–2316 / 12–2315 / 11–2315 / 11–2315 / 11–2314 / 10–2213 / 9–2112 / 7–20
Rain mm44 / 10–13841 / 9–15240 / 8–20566 / 20–275138 / 46–328227 / 87–359211 / 90–365212 / 77–349246 / 97–424180 / 54–37378 / 12–29556 / 7–197
DLI31 / 24–3434 / 28–3837 / 31–4440 / 29–4638 / 27–4535 / 27–4136 / 28–4136 / 30–4033 / 29–3630 / 26–3528 / 24–3429 / 22–32
RH %63 / 52–6962 / 51–6861 / 48–6862 / 49–7064 / 53–7167 / 59–7165 / 60–7265 / 60–7268 / 62–7267 / 60–7266 / 56–7265 / 54–70

Each figure is the median across the 274 grid cells holding the 339 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 1398:1646 (20.075, -97.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.7 °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 274 distinct grid cells holding the 339 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1398:1646 (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 20.00_-97.500, lapse-corrected -414 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 837 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia· introduced: Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, China South-Central, China Southeast, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Assam, East Himalaya, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Solomon Is., Queensland, New Caledonia, Line Is., Caroline Is., Texas, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Windward Is., Peru, Brazil Southeast, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker19.555, -96.968 · in the densest population, 131 records (38% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 346 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 105 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 22 km away. 855 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 7 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 346 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Zephyranthes carinataZephyranthes carinataZephyranthes carinataZephyranthes carinataZephyranthes carinataZephyranthes carinataZephyranthes carinataZephyranthes carinata

Photographs: (c) Katie Carter, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) cstobie, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Devendra Kumar Gurjar, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) luluchouette, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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 Zephyranthes carinata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitory Alkaloids from the Whole Plants of Zephyranthes carinata
Guanqun Zhan, Junfei Zhou, Junjun Liu, Jinfeng Huang (2017) · Journal of Natural Products
Alkaloid profile and cholinesterase inhibition activity of five species of Amaryllidaceae family collected from Mérida state-Venezuela
Janne Rojas‐Vera, Alexis A. Buitrago-Díaz, Letícia M. Possamai, Luís Fernando Saraiva Macedo Timmers (2020) · South African Journal of Botany
Two alkaloids from Zephyranthes carinata
Keisuke Kojima, Motoh Mutsuga, Makoto Inoue, Yukio Ogihara (1998) · Phytochemistry
Isolation of carinatine and pretazettine from the bulbs of Zephyranthes carinate Herb. (Amaryllidaceae).
Shigeru Kobayashi, Hideki Ishikawa, Masaru Kihara, Tetsuro Shingu (1977) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Cytological Observations on some W. Himalayan Monocots
P. N. Mehra, S. K. Sachdeva (1976) · CYTOLOGIA
Neuroprotection and improvement of the histopathological and behavioral impairments in a murine Alzheimer’s model treated with Zephyranthes carinata alkaloids
Natalie Cortés, Angélica María Sabogal-Guáqueta, Gloria Patricia Cardona‐Gómez, Edison Osorio (2018) · Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy
In vitro and in silico analysis of galanthine from Zephyranthes carinata as an inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase
Karina Sierra, Jean Paulo de Andrade, Luciana R. Tallini, Edison Osorio (2022) · Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy
Amaryllidaceae alkaloids in skin cancer management: Photoprotective effect on human keratinocytes and anti-proliferative activity in melanoma cells
Carol Castañeda, Karent Bravo, Natalie Cortés, Janeth Bedoya (2023) · Journal of Applied Biomedicine
An Alternative Approach for Determining Critical Micelle Concentration: Dispersion of Ink in Foam
Ambika Pradhan, Amitabha Bhattacharyya (2018) · Journal of Surfactants and Detergents
Ueber die Chromosomen einiger Amaryllidaceen
S. NAGAO, H. TAKUSAGAWA (1932) · Shokubutsugaku Zasshi

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 Zephyranthes 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (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 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; 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 68 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.