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Aerides odorata; photograph (c) Kai Squires, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Kai Squires, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-05-30

Aerides odorata Lour.

Orchidaceae · China South-Central, China Southeast +20

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Aerides odorata, photograph (c) Kai Squires, some rights reserved (CC BY)Aerides odorata, photograph (c) Kai Squires, some rights reserved (CC BY)Aerides odorata, photograph (c) Kai Squires, some rights reserved (CC BY)Aerides odorata, photograph (c) Sudipta Kr Rabha, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Aerides odorata, photograph (c) Sudipta Kr Rabha, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Aerides odorata, photograph (c) Fathurrahman Sidiq, some rights reserved (CC BY) 55 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
9.1°C
Record low 6.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,448mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–35DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Aerides odorata is a species of flowering plant in the Orchidaceae. It is widespread across much of Southeast Asia, found in the lowland forests of China (Yunnan, Guangdong), Himalayas, Bhutan, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, the Lesser Sunda Islands, and the Philippines. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest. It is threatened by habitat loss.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Aerides odorata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,561 mm of 2,099 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.5 °C against a yearly mean of 24.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

2,099 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,561 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 363 mm, driest month December at 18 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,755 mm to 3,446 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,448 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,099 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 9.1 °C, the absolute minimum 6.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 13.5 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 8.9 °C to 24.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.5 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -43 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Aerides odorata through the yearWarmest month May, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 13.5 °C; 2,099 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°41.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER6.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 27–35RH 58–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 63 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C24 / 19–2926 / 21–3029 / 23–3129 / 26–3430 / 26–3229 / 26–3129 / 25–3129 / 25–3129 / 25–3028 / 24–3027 / 22–2925 / 20–29
Night °C14 / 9–2415 / 11–2418 / 14–2421 / 16–2523 / 17–2624 / 19–2623 / 19–2523 / 19–2522 / 18–2521 / 17–2417 / 14–2414 / 10–24
Rain mm25 / 11–34940 / 21–35685 / 31–271172 / 60–287245 / 138–384323 / 138–537363 / 78–759326 / 64–613304 / 111–451150 / 77–36848 / 14–34018 / 9–315
DLI29 / 23–3432 / 26–3735 / 30–4135 / 31–4333 / 31–4131 / 26–3427 / 23–3327 / 23–3627 / 25–3729 / 26–3528 / 24–3327 / 22–32
RH %60 / 54–7158 / 53–7058 / 51–7063 / 49–6966 / 54–7067 / 62–7068 / 65–7268 / 65–7268 / 64–7165 / 59–7063 / 55–7161 / 53–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 63 grid cells holding the 76 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1424:5244 (18.775, 82.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 63 distinct grid cells holding 76 of the 76 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1424:5244 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.00_82.500, lapse-corrected -43 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 600 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, China Southeast, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker26.125, 91.815 · in the densest population, 32 records (25% of those in range)
Kew's description“epiphytic subshrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 128 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 76 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 66 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4182 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 52 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 128 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Aerides odorata, photograph 1did not loadAerides odorata, photograph 2did not loadAerides odorata, photograph 3did not loadAerides odorata, photograph 4did not loadAerides odorata, photograph 5did not loadAerides odorata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Kai Squires, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Sudipta Kr Rabha, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Fathurrahman Sidiq, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Acmella paniculata Acmella paniculata Panicled Spot Flower Photo: CC BY-SA, Abu Hamas Illigera rhodantha Hernandiaceae Mallotus barbatus Mallotus barbatus Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, Eugene PopovDioscorea bulbifera Dioscorea bulbifera Air potato Photo: CC0, author not statedCymbidium aloifolium Cymbidium aloifolium Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Sandipan Das Iodes cirrhosa Icacinaceae

Other Aerides 8 in the reference

Aerides crispa Aerides crispa Curled Aerides Photo: CC BY-SA, Vikas D PrasadAerides falcata Aerides falcata Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Mitch Van DykeAerides houlletiana Aerides houlletiana Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Wutthichayapartith Rasvara…Aerides lawrenceae Aerides lawrenceae Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, OrchiAerides maculosa Aerides maculosa Fox brush orchid Photo: CC BY, Aadi KulkarniAerides multiflora Aerides multiflora Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Sagnik Dutta Roy Aerides quinquevulnera Orchid of the Sacred Sleep Aerides rosea Aerides rosea Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated

Names & registers

Also known as Aerides ballantiniana; Aerides cornuta; Aerides dayana; Aerides flavida; Aerides jucunda and 26 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
Lour.
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast, Assam +19
Wild records
128 in range · 66 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.00_82.500, lapse-corrected -43 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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