Species
+

Baileya multiradiata Harv. & A.Gray ex Torr.

Desert marigold, Showy Desert-marigold, Wild Desert-marigold, desert-marigold

Climate known 63 photographs
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

Baileya multiradiata is a North American species of sun-loving wildflower in the family Asteraceae. It is native to the deserts of northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States. It has been found in the States of Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Aguascalientes, California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Texas.

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

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
Harv. & A.Gray ex Torr.
Native to
Arizona, California, Nevada +6
Wild records
1823 in range· 578 open

At a glance

Warmest month
35°C
Jul, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
273mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Aug 44 mm (CHELSA)
Light
20–54DLI
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, December to March and July to September in the northern hemisphere (December to March and July to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 273 mm a year, wettest August at 44 mm, driest June at 6 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 54 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -2.2 °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 Baileya australis Rydb.; Baileya multiradiata Harv. & A.Gray; Baileya multiradiata var. multiradiata; Baileya multiradiata var. nudicaulis A.Gray; Baileya multiradiata var. thurberi (Rydb.) Kittell and 3 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March and July to September in the northern hemisphere (December to March and July to September 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 (209 mm of 273 mm) falls in December to March and July to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 17.4 °C against a yearly mean of 18.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to March and June to September.

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 273 mm a year, wettest August at 44 mm, driest June at 6 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

273 mm a year at the habitat, 209 mm of it December to March and July to September. Wettest month August at 44 mm, driest June at 6 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 183 mm to 445 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: 20 to 54 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 54 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 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 55).

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 -2.2 °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 -2.2 °C, the absolute minimum -12.2 °C, about 13 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 2.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells -1.7 °C to 5.8 °C), warmest day 35.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.2 °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: 36 to 49% 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 14 °C in Dec to 35 °C in Jul; mean night from 2 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 273 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1064 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -12.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 42.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost42.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-12.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 20–54RH 36–49 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1064 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 °C15 / 10–1917 / 12–2121 / 16–2525 / 20–3030 / 26–3434 / 30–3835 / 31–4034 / 30–3931 / 27–3626 / 22–3019 / 15–2414 / 9–19
Night °C2 / -2–64 / -0–76 / 3–1010 / 6–1415 / 11–1920 / 16–2322 / 18–2722 / 18–2618 / 15–2312 / 9–167 / 3–103 / -1–6
Rain mm25 / 13–4427 / 10–4623 / 7–4311 / 7–207 / 3–206 / 2–3737 / 12–8144 / 15–8528 / 10–5223 / 13–3517 / 10–2825 / 11–42
DLI22 / 20–2628 / 26–3238 / 36–4147 / 45–4852 / 50–5354 / 49–5548 / 45–5144 / 42–4739 / 38–4132 / 30–3424 / 22–2720 / 18–24
RH %49 / 46–5247 / 45–5144 / 41–4940 / 37–4438 / 34–4336 / 32–4644 / 37–5047 / 39–5245 / 39–5144 / 40–4946 / 43–4949 / 46–52

Each figure is the median across the 1064 grid cells holding the 1723 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 1125:1375 (33.725, -111.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -12.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.9 °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 1064 distinct grid cells holding the 1723 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1125:1375 (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 33.50_-111.250, lapse-corrected -144 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 777 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.
NativeArizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest
Map marker33.466, -111.607 · in the densest population, 1148 records (63% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1823 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 578 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 67 km away. 1 record outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 100 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 1823 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Baileya multiradiataBaileya multiradiataBaileya multiradiataBaileya multiradiataBaileya multiradiataBaileya multiradiataBaileya multiradiataBaileya multiradiata

Photographs: (c) Steve Matson, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Melanie J. Davis, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Eliseo D Moreno, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Lightning Star Sky / Skyler Noah Wall, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons 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 Baileya multiradiata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

A systematic review of species performance and treatment effectiveness for revegetation in the Mojave Desert, USA
Scott R. Abella, Alice C. Newton (2009) · Digital Scholarship - UNLV (University of Nevada Reno)
Early Post-Fire Plant Establishment on a Mojave Desert Burn
Scott R. Abella, E. Cayenne Engel, Christina L. Lund, Jessica E. Spencer (2009) · Madroño
Identification of hymenoxone in Baileya multiradiata and Helenium hoopsii
Dennis W. Hill, Hyeong L. Kim, Charles L. Martin, Bennie J. Camp (1977) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Polyacetylenverbindungen, 239. Notiz über ein neues Sulfoxid aus Baileya multiradiata Harv. et Gray
Ferdinand Bohlmann, Christa Zdero, Tom J. Mabry (1976) · Chemische Berichte
The toxicity of Baileya multiradiata for sheep and goats.
F. P. Mathews (1933) · Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association
Antineoplastic agents. 52. Baileya multiradiata.
George R. Pettit, Cherry L. Herald, Gerard F. Judd, George Bolliger (1978) · PubMed
Distribution and Meiotic Behavior of Supernumerary Chromosomes in Baileya multiradiata (Compositae)
Roy C. Brown, Donald J. Pinkava (1974) · Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club
The desert marigold moth.
Timothy Myles, Bradley F. Binder (1990) · UA Campus Repository (The University of Arizona)
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 (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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.

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); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
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); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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 2026-09-20; 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 78 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.