Species
+

Lilium lancifolium Thunb.

Devil Lily, Easter Lily, Kentan, Martagon

Climate known 51 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

Lilium lancifolium is an Asian species of lily, native to China, Japan, Korea, and the Russian Far East. It is widely planted as an ornamental because of its showy orange-and-black flowers, and sporadically occurs as a garden escapee in North America, particularly the eastern United States including New England, and has made incursions into some southern states such as Georgia.

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

About the genus · Lilium

Lilium is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large and often prominent flowers. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. Most species are native to the Northern Hemisphere and their range is temperate climates and extends into the subtropics. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Lilium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Liliaceae
Described by
Thunb.
Native to
Kuril Is., Primorye, Sakhalin +8
Wild records
858 in range· 351 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Aug, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1373mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 285 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–37DLI
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 Liliaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1373 mm a year, wettest July at 285 mm, driest December at 28 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -9.6 °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 Lilium lancifolium subsp. album Hovey; Lilium lancifolium subsp. melpomene Hovey; Lilium lancifolium var. densum W.Bull; Lilium lancifolium var. flaviflorum Makino; Lilium lancifolium var. fortunei (Standish) V.A.Matthews and 11 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by Liliaceae, 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 summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1009 mm of 1373 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.5 °C against a yearly mean of 13.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

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 1373 mm a year, wettest July at 285 mm, driest December at 28 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1373 mm a year at the habitat, 1009 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 285 mm, driest December at 28 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 987 mm to 1965 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: 15 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

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 -9.6 °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 -9.6 °C, the absolute minimum -15.2 °C, about 95 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -2.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells -12.0 °C to 3.2 °C), warmest day 27.0 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -9.6 °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: 56 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 4 °C in Jan to 27 °C in Aug; mean night from -2 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1373 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 641 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -15.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.1 °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°frost33.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-15.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 15–37RH 56–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 641 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 °C4 / -1–85 / 1–910 / 5–1315 / 11–1920 / 15–2323 / 20–2726 / 23–2927 / 25–2924 / 20–2619 / 15–2112 / 7–166 / 1–11
Night °C-2 / -12–3-1 / -9–43 / -3–78 / 3–1212 / 8–1617 / 13–2022 / 18–2322 / 18–2518 / 13–2112 / 6–166 / -1–110 / -8–6
Rain mm32 / 15–8043 / 17–9464 / 36–14188 / 59–156114 / 83–197171 / 114–273285 / 160–400266 / 147–347173 / 103–23456 / 45–13653 / 33–9828 / 17–58
DLI17 / 14–1922 / 19–2429 / 24–3035 / 30–3637 / 32–3835 / 30–3731 / 27–3430 / 28–3327 / 24–2824 / 19–2517 / 16–1915 / 13–17
RH %56 / 52–6156 / 53–6157 / 54–6158 / 54–6161 / 56–6564 / 59–7068 / 63–7366 / 63–6962 / 60–6458 / 56–6157 / 54–6056 / 53–60

Each figure is the median across the 641 grid cells holding the 846 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 1104:6146 (34.775, 127.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -15.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -9.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.1 °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 641 distinct grid cells holding the 846 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1104:6146 (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 35.00_127.500, lapse-corrected -172 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 46 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.
NativeKuril Is., Primorye, Sakhalin, China South-Central, Manchuria, China North-Central, Qinghai, China Southeast, Tibet, Japan, Korea· introduced: Austria, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Irkutsk, Amur, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Québec, Montana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Alabama, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, District of Columbia
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker34.556, 127.461 · in the densest population, 352 records (41% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 858 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 351 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 31 km away. 957 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 12 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 858 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Lilium lancifoliumLilium lancifoliumLilium lancifoliumLilium lancifoliumLilium lancifoliumLilium lancifoliumLilium lancifoliumLilium lancifolium

Photographs: (c) Jane Charlen, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6); (c) William Krueger, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (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 Lilium lancifolium, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Isolation and Characterization of Plant Growth‐Promoting Endophytic Bacteria Paenibacillus polymyxa SK1 from Lilium lancifolium
Mohammad Sayyar Khan, Jun-lian Gao, Xüqing Chen, Mingfang Zhang (2020) · BioMed Research International
Anti-inflammatory effects of methanol extracts of the root of Lilium lancifolium on LPS-stimulated Raw264.7 cells
Ok‐Kyoung Kwon, Mee-Young Lee, Ji-Eun Yuk, Sei‐Ryang Oh (2010) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Characterization and antioxidant activities of polysaccharides from the leaves of Lilium lancifolium Thunb.
Xu Zhou, Handong Wang, Bulei Wang, Liang Fu (2016) · International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Transcriptome profiling of the cold response and signaling pathways in Lilium lancifolium
Jingmao Wang, Yang Yang, Xiaohua Liu, Jie Huang (2014) · BMC Genomics
Immune-enhancing effects of polysaccharides extracted from Lilium lancifolium Thunb
Guifang Pan, Zhongwen Xie, Shixia Huang, Yuling Tai (2017) · International Immunopharmacology
Lilium lancifolium Thunb. extract attenuates pulmonary inflammation and air space enlargement in a cigarette smoke-exposed mouse model
Euijeong Lee, Nayoung Yun, Young Pyo Jang, Jinju Kim (2013) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Cloning and Functional Characterization of a Gene for Capsanthin-Capsorubin Synthase from Tiger Lily (Lilium lancifolium Thunb. ‘Splendens’)
Zoran Jeknić, Jeffrey T. Morré, Stevan Jeknić, Slađana Jevremović (2012) · Plant and Cell Physiology
Histological and Transcriptomic Analysis during Bulbil Formation in Lilium lancifolium
Panpan Yang, Leifeng Xu, Hua Xu, Yuchao Tang (2017) · Frontiers in Plant Science

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 Lilium 5 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 answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata 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: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.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 answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; 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 114 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.