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Zephyranthes sessilis Herb.

Amaryllidaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +1 · listed by its family as a bulb, tuber or caudex

Photographs not checked iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
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Sow seed
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
2.0°C
Record low -2.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
23°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
815mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
31–45DLI
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 September, 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

Zephyranthes sessilis is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae, native to central, northeastern and southwestern Mexico. It was first described by William Herbert in 1837.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Zephyranthes sessilis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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.

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

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex, listed under the family Amaryllidaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “bulbous geophyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (621 mm of 830 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 15.7 °C against a yearly mean of 14.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

830 mm in the median year at the habitat, 621 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 176 mm, driest month December at 7 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 546 mm to 1,399 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 815 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 830 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: 31 to 45 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 30, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 2.0 °C, the absolute minimum -2.1 °C, 33 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 4.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 0.5 °C to 7.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 23.1 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.0 °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: 48 to 64% 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 -348 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.

Group. Listed under the family Amaryllidaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “bulbous geophyte”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Zephyranthes sessilis through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 23 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 4.8 °C; 830 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.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost31.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-2.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 31–45RH 48–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 41 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 °C18 / 15–2220 / 16–2322 / 19–2623 / 20–2723 / 19–2721 / 18–2520 / 16–2320 / 17–2319 / 16–2319 / 16–2219 / 15–2218 / 15–22
Night °C5 / 1–85 / 1–96 / 3–108 / 4–129 / 6–1310 / 7–1310 / 7–1210 / 7–1310 / 7–138 / 5–126 / 3–105 / 1–9
Rain mm13 / 9–2112 / 8–1813 / 7–2128 / 17–4260 / 41–103146 / 97–240176 / 103–295156 / 96–278143 / 90–23962 / 42–9514 / 9–207 / 5–11
DLI33 / 31–3438 / 36–3944 / 43–4445 / 45–4743 / 43–4639 / 37–4138 / 35–4138 / 35–3934 / 31–3533 / 31–3533 / 31–3431 / 30–32
RH %52 / 51–5450 / 50–5248 / 47–5050 / 48–5154 / 51–5661 / 57–6463 / 59–6863 / 59–6964 / 61–7061 / 59–6556 / 55–5954 / 52–55
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 41 grid cells holding the 50 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 1413:1616 (19.325, -99.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -2.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.8 °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 41 distinct grid cells holding 50 of the 50 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1413:1616 (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 19.50_-99.375, lapse-corrected -348 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2279 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southwest · 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 marker19.31, -99.07 · in the densest population, 56 records (92% of those in range)
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 61 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 50 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 59 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 11 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.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 61 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built; GBIF's observation records with coordinates hold none. Not a statement that none exist.

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

Dahlia sorensenii Dahlia sorensenii Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Erick Vélez SánchezGentiana spathacea Gentiana spathacea Gentianaceae Photo: CC BY, Irving MerinoDahlia merckii Dahlia merckii Bedding Dahlia Photo: CC BY, Isaac KroneStevia eupatoria Stevia eupatoria Stevia Photo: CC0, DaderotArgemone platyceras Argemone platyceras Crested-poppy Photo: CC BY, jessicavazquezZephyranthes alba Zephyranthes alba Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY, Leonardo O. Alvarado Cárdenas

Other Zephyranthes 37 in the reference

Zephyranthes advena Zephyranthes advena Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedZephyranthes alba Zephyranthes alba Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY, Leonardo O. Alvarado CárdenasZephyranthes araucana Zephyranthes araucana Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY, Ariadna TripaldiZephyranthes atamasco Zephyranthes atamasco Atamasco lily Photo: CC BY-SA, Turner BrockmanZephyranthes bagnoldii Zephyranthes bagnoldii Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY, Jorge Herreros de LartundoZephyranthes bifida Zephyranthes bifida Oxblood Lily Photo: CC BY, Matias CabezasZephyranthes brachyandra Zephyranthes brachyandra Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, K. MusálemZephyranthes candida Zephyranthes candida Autumn zephyr lily Photo: CC BY, Rocío Esmeralda PoseZephyranthes carinata Zephyranthes carinata Rose Pink zephyr lily Photo: CC BY, Ronald PéretZephyranthes cearensis Zephyranthes cearensis Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Carlos HenriqueZephyranthes chlorosolen Zephyranthes chlorosolen Evening rain-lily Photo: CC BY, Wes CopasZephyranthes citrina Zephyranthes citrina Citron zephyrlily Photo: CC BY, Sabarni Sarker all 38 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Hippeastrum sessile. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Amaryllidaceae
Described by
Herb.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southwest
Wild records
61 in range · 59 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
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a herbarium; 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 19.50_-99.375, lapse-corrected -348 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 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 15 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…