When does desert lily bloom in Arizona?

Most often in March. Across 223 dated, research-grade observations of Hesperocallis undulata in Arizona, the flowering season runs roughly March to April.

Peak March In flower 223 Examined 292 State Arizona

Flowering 223 in flower of 292 examined

50%

60%

91%

85%

17%

Proportion of examined Hesperocallis undulata in Arizona in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	13	26	50%	32% to 68%
Feb	29	48	60%	46% to 73%
Mar	127	140	91%	85% to 94%
Apr	53	62	85%	75% to 92%
May	0	3	too few examined
Jun	0	1	too few examined
Jul	0	0	too few examined
Aug	0	0	too few examined
Sep	0	0	too few examined
Oct	0	1	too few examined
Nov	0	5	0%	0% to 43%
Dec	1	6	17%	3% to 56%

Peak flowering in Mar. Each bar is the share of Hesperocallis undulata in Arizona observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 223 of 292 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.wt38fd.

What this is, and what it is not

This is a record of when people in Arizona found Hesperocallis undulata in flower, not a forecast. It is computed only from observations made in Arizona, so it is not the species’ global average dragged onto a map: the same plant flowers on different dates in different places, and that is the entire point of the page.

It will not tell you what your particular plant will do this year. Bloom time moves with the season, with altitude, and with the weather, and a warm February pulls everything forward. We publish the distribution and the sample size, and we refuse to draw a month that too few people examined.

The plant

Hesperocallis undulata

desert lily

Sourcesevery claim on this page

GBIF (iNaturalist Research-grade Observations). Dated flowering annotations in Arizona. Every record achieved iNaturalist quality grade Research, which is applied upstream at export. 10.15468/dl.wt38fd. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
World Flora Online Plant List. The accepted name. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.