Species
+

Darlingtonia californica Torr.

California pitcherplant, California pitcherplant, California-pitcherplant, Cobra Lily

Climate known 92 photographs Carnivorous plant
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

Darlingtonia californica is a species of carnivorous plant in the new world pitcher plant family, Sarraceniaceae. The cobra lily is the sole species within its monotypic genus, Darlingtonia.

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

Family
Sarraceniaceae
Described by
Torr.
Native to
Oregon, California
Wild records
1881 in range· 343 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jul, mean day; nights 12 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1941mm/yr
10 wet months · peak Dec 377 mm (CHELSA)
Light
10–51DLI
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 carnivorous plant by the genus Darlingtonia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1941 mm a year, wettest December at 377 mm, driest July at 11 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 51 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -4.7 °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 Chrysamphora californica (Torr.) Greene; Darlingtonia californica f. californica; Darlingtonia californica f. viridiflora B.Rice; Darlingtonia rediviva Torr.

Cultivation

Grouped as a carnivorous plant by the genus Darlingtonia, which is reliably 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 winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March 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 (1502 mm of 1941 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 4.4 °C against a yearly mean of 10.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May 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 1941 mm a year, wettest December at 377 mm, driest July at 11 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1941 mm a year at the habitat, 1502 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 377 mm, driest July at 11 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1054 mm to 2865 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: 10 to 51 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 51 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 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).

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 -4.7 °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 -4.7 °C, the absolute minimum -17.2 °C, about 61 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -0.7 °C in December (across the envelope cells -6.5 °C to 5.4 °C), warmest day 26.3 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.7 °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: 50 to 62% 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 7 °C in Dec to 26 °C in Jul; mean night from -1 °C in Dec to 13 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 1941 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 163 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -17.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.1 °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°frost36.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-17.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 10–51RH 50–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 163 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 °C8 / 2–119 / 3–1211 / 5–1313 / 10–1617 / 14–2121 / 17–2626 / 20–3126 / 20–3023 / 19–2717 / 14–2011 / 6–137 / 1–10
Night °C-1 / -6–5-1 / -6–61 / -5–63 / -3–76 / 1–99 / 5–1112 / 9–1413 / 9–1410 / 6–137 / 2–102 / -3–8-1 / -7–5
Rain mm329 / 180–458259 / 149–371245 / 125–364142 / 69–21386 / 46–12536 / 22–7611 / 5–1614 / 8–2331 / 16–63119 / 62–185292 / 154–436377 / 197–585
DLI12 / 10–1418 / 15–2026 / 22–3036 / 32–3943 / 38–4648 / 42–5151 / 46–5345 / 41–4836 / 32–3823 / 20–2713 / 11–1610 / 8–12
RH %62 / 56–6662 / 58–6460 / 58–6459 / 55–6457 / 52–6454 / 48–6450 / 43–6550 / 43–6550 / 44–6454 / 50–6461 / 56–6662 / 57–66

Each figure is the median across the 163 grid cells holding the 361 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 957:1125 (42.125, -123.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.1 °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 163 distinct grid cells holding the 361 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 957:1125 (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 42.00_-123.750, lapse-corrected +37 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 762 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.
NativeOregon, California· introduced: British Columbia, Washington
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker41.796, -123.682 · in the densest population, 1369 records (73% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1881 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 343 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 3 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1520 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 of the 1881 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Darlingtonia californicaDarlingtonia californicaDarlingtonia californicaDarlingtonia californicaDarlingtonia californicaDarlingtonia californicaDarlingtonia californicaDarlingtonia californica

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Toby, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Reid Hardin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

IMPROVING THE PRECISION OF ESTIMATES OF THE FREQUENCY OF RARE EVENTS
Philip M. Dixon, Aaron M. Ellison, Nicholas J. Gotelli (2005) · Ecology
The cost of carnivory for Darlingtonia californica (Sarraceniaceae): evidence from relationships among leaf traits
Aaron M. Ellison, Elizabeth J. Farnsworth (2005) · American Journal of Botany
AN S.E.M. SURVEY OF THE FIVE CARNIVOROUS PITCHER PLANT GENERA
Richard M. Adams, George W. Smith (1977) · American Journal of Botany
Endocytosis and Digestion in Carnivorous Pitcher Plants of the Family Sarraceniaceae
Marianne Koller‐Peroutka, Stefanie Krammer, Anselm Pavlik, Manfred Edlinger (2019) · Plants
An S.E.M. Survey of the Five Carnivorous Pitcher Plant Genera
Richard M. Adams, George W. Smith (1977) · American Journal of Botany
Arthropod Communities Associated with Darlingtonia californica
David W. Nielsen (1990) · Annals of the Entomological Society of America
Early floral development and androecium organization in the sarracenioid clade (Actinidiaceae, Roridulaceae and Sarraceniaceae) of Ericales
Stefan Löfstrand, Maria von Balthazar, Jürg Schönenberger (2016) · Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society

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 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)
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 45 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.