Fritillaria meleagris L.
Fritillary, Guinea-hen-flower, Lazarus bell
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
Fritillaria meleagris is a Eurasian species of flowering plant in the lily family Liliaceae. Its common names include snake's head fritillary, snake's head, chess flower, frog-cup, guinea-hen flower, guinea flower, leper lily, Lazarus bell, chequered lily, chequered daffodil, drooping tulip or, in the British Isles, simply fritillary. The plant is a bulbous perennial native to the flood river plains of Europe where it grows in abundance.
Text from Wikipedia, “Fritillaria meleagris”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Fritillaria
Fritillaria (fritillaries) is a genus of spring flowering herbaceous bulbous perennial plants in the lily family (Liliaceae). The type species, Fritillaria meleagris, was first described in Europe in 1571, while other species from the Middle East and Asia were also introduced to Europe at that time. The genus has about 130–140 species divided among eight subgenera. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Fritillaria”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Fritillaria contorta Baker; Fritillaria graminifolia Stokes; Fritillaria lutea Rchb.; Fritillaria major Baker; Fritillaria meleagris subsp. meleagris and 10 more.
Cultivation
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Fritillaria, 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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (618 mm of 869 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 15.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.
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 869 mm a year, wettest October at 85 mm, driest April at 56 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
869 mm a year at the habitat, 618 mm of it June to January. Wettest month October at 85 mm, driest April at 56 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 688 mm to 1090 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: 6 to 37 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 37 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 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).
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 -5.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -5.3 °C, the absolute minimum -12.3 °C, about 28 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.8 °C in February (across the envelope cells -3.5 °C to 2.7 °C), warmest day 23.1 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.3 °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, without lapse correction; 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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 6 / 3–9 | 6 / 4–10 | 10 / 8–13 | 14 / 11–16 | 18 / 15–20 | 21 / 18–23 | 23 / 20–26 | 23 / 20–26 | 19 / 17–22 | 14 / 13–18 | 10 / 7–12 | 6 / 3–9 |
| Night °C | 1 / -4–3 | 1 / -4–3 | 3 / -0–5 | 5 / 3–7 | 9 / 8–11 | 12 / 11–14 | 15 / 13–16 | 15 / 13–16 | 12 / 10–13 | 9 / 6–11 | 5 / 1–6 | 2 / -2–4 |
| Rain mm | 76 / 56–95 | 60 / 46–74 | 65 / 50–85 | 56 / 44–88 | 70 / 59–107 | 71 / 46–95 | 75 / 49–93 | 73 / 46–93 | 72 / 54–95 | 85 / 64–108 | 83 / 58–102 | 83 / 64–105 |
| DLI | 7 / 5–9 | 12 / 9–15 | 20 / 16–23 | 29 / 27–31 | 34 / 32–36 | 37 / 33–39 | 36 / 32–39 | 31 / 27–34 | 22 / 18–27 | 14 / 11–17 | 8 / 6–10 | 6 / 3–8 |
| RH % | 67 / 65–69 | 64 / 62–66 | 62 / 59–64 | 60 / 58–62 | 60 / 58–62 | 59 / 58–62 | 59 / 57–62 | 60 / 57–62 | 61 / 59–63 | 64 / 62–65 | 67 / 65–68 | 68 / 65–70 |
Each figure is the median across the 830 grid cells holding the 1025 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 759:3693 (52.025, 4.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -12.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.7 °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 830 distinct grid cells holding the 1025 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 759:3693 (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 52.00_4.375, no lapse correction (no cell elevation on file).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Nina Filippova, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Olga Cherkasova, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Sheelagh Halsey, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Dmitriy Bochkov, 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 Fritillaria meleagris, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Lathyrus latifolius Broad-Leaf Everlasting Pea
Trifolium pratense Chilean Clover
Geranium macrorrhizum Bulgarian geranium
Cymbalaria muralis Ivy-leaved Toadflax
Papaver dubium Blindeyes
Leucojum aestivum Giant Spring SnowflakeOther Fritillaria 1 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.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 answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 159 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.