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Begonia nelumbiifolia; photograph (c) Jose Manuel Ramos Martinez, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Jose Manuel Ramos Martinez, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-11-14

Begonia nelumbiifolia Schltdl. & Cham.

Lilypad begonia; Water Lily Begonia

Begoniaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +11 · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Begonia nelumbiifolia Schltdl. & Cham.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Cham. & Schltdl.

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Begonia nelumbiifolia, photograph (c) Cricket Raspet, some rights reserved (CC BY)Begonia nelumbiifolia, photograph (c) Tenoch Cuauhtémoc Perez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Begonia nelumbiifolia, photograph (c) Tenoch Cuauhtémoc Perez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Begonia nelumbiifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedBegonia nelumbiifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedBegonia nelumbiifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 55 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
15.1°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,472mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–40DLI
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 June to October, 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

Begonia nelumbiifolia, the lilypad begonia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Begoniaceae.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Begonia nelumbiifolia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Begonia

Begonia is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family Begoniaceae. The genus contains more than 2,000 different plant species, distributed primarily across tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Central and South America, with Africa considered the center of origin. Some species are commonly grown indoors as ornamental houseplants in cooler climates, or cultivated outside in summertime for their bright colorful flowers, which have petals but no sepals.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Begonia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the genus Begonia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial”, “wet tropical”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,665 mm of 2,362 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.8 °C against a yearly mean of 22.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Rain

2,362 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,665 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 417 mm, driest month March at 58 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,512 mm to 3,210 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,472 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,362 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: 23 to 40 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 15.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 10.7 °C to 19.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.8 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 15.1 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 70% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

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

Group. Listed under the genus Begonia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial”, “wet tropical”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Begonia nelumbiifolia through the yearWarmest month May, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 15.1 °C; 2,362 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 23–40RH 63–70%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 190 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C23 / 20–2624 / 21–2726 / 23–2928 / 25–3229 / 25–3228 / 24–3127 / 23–3027 / 23–3027 / 23–2925 / 22–2824 / 21–2723 / 20–26
Night °C15 / 11–1916 / 11–2017 / 13–2119 / 14–2321 / 16–2421 / 16–2420 / 16–2320 / 16–2420 / 16–2319 / 15–2217 / 13–2116 / 11–20
Rain mm86 / 38–15880 / 34–12258 / 28–8575 / 37–121124 / 88–191300 / 220–438332 / 214–502325 / 215–513417 / 284–546291 / 151–410163 / 67–279111 / 48–219
DLI24 / 21–2829 / 25–3336 / 31–3840 / 35–4240 / 37–4235 / 33–3835 / 32–3935 / 31–3830 / 28–3328 / 26–3125 / 23–2923 / 20–27
RH %68 / 64–7066 / 62–6863 / 59–6663 / 59–6664 / 60–6768 / 64–7169 / 64–7268 / 64–7270 / 66–7369 / 65–7268 / 64–7168 / 64–71

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1047 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum 2.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.5 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 190 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (270 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), 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 1397:1655 (20.125, -97.225). 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 190 distinct grid cells holding 270 of the 271 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1397:1655 (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 20.00_-97.500, lapse-corrected -1047 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 204 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia · introduced: Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico · 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 marker20.075, -97.558 · in the densest population, 271 records (73% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 370 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 270 of them in the land cells it reads, of 271 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 245 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 51 km away. 63 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 99 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 2° block of the 370 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Begonia nelumbiifolia, photograph 1did not loadBegonia nelumbiifolia, photograph 2did not loadBegonia nelumbiifolia, photograph 3did not loadBegonia nelumbiifolia, photograph 4did not loadBegonia nelumbiifolia, photograph 5did not loadBegonia nelumbiifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Cricket Raspet, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Tenoch Cuauhtémoc Perez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (3).

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

Passiflora helleri Passiflora helleri Passifloraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Golik Asplundia labela Cyclanthaceae Tillandsia filifolia Tillandsia filifolia Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Peter QuakenbushOdontonema callistachyum Odontonema callistachyum Firespike Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezBegonia thiemei Begonia thiemei Begoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Sue CarnahanPsychotria trichotoma Psychotria trichotoma Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez Marcial

Other Begonia 279 in the reference

Begonia abdullahpieei Begoniaceae Begonia acerifolia Begonia acerifolia Maple-leaved begonia Photo: CC BY, Yuri SofronovBegonia acetosa Begonia acetosa Ruby begonia Photo: CC0, Daderot Begonia acetosella Begoniaceae Begonia acida Begonia acida Begoniaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Michael WolfBegonia aconitifolia Begonia aconitifolia Aconite Leaved Begonia Photo: CC BY-SA, rubens curveloBegonia acutifolia Begonia acutifolia Begoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Cliff from I now live in Arlington, VA… Begonia albomaculata Begoniaceae Begonia × albopicta Begoniaceae Begonia alice-clarkiae Begoniaceae Begonia almedana Begoniaceae Begonia amphioxus Begoniaceae all 280 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Begonia caudilimba; Begonia deryckxiana; Begonia derycxiana; Begonia hernandiifolia; Gireoudia nelumbiifolia. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Begonia peltata Sessé & Moc. is an older name of this species, not Begonia peltata, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Begoniaceae
Described by
Schltdl. & Cham.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +10
Wild records
370 in range · 245 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 2026-10-21GBIF's key 2874720 is Begonia nelumbiifolia Cham. & Schltdl.; the page links Kew's Begonia nelumbiifolia Schltdl. & Cham., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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; 30 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (27 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 1 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 20.00_-97.500, lapse-corrected -1047 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1047 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
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 48 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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