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Cabomba aquatica; photograph (c) agujaceratops, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) agujaceratops, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-05-23

Cabomba aquatica Aubl.

Giant Cabomba; Yellow Cabomba

Cabombaceae · French Guiana, Guyana +9

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Cabomba aquatica, photograph (c) Brenda O'Grady, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Cabomba aquatica, photograph (c) Brenda O'Grady, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Cabomba aquatica, photograph (c) Brenda O'Grady, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Cabomba aquatica, photograph (c) Brenda O'Grady, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Cabomba aquatica, photograph (c) Brenda O'Grady, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Cabomba aquatica, photograph (c) agujaceratops, some rights reserved (CC BY) 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
21.5°C
Record low 18.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Aug, Sep, Oct and Nov at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,729mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–39DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, January to June (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Cabomba aquatica is a rhizomatous, perennial, aquatic herb in the family Cabombaceae native to South America. It occurs in fresh standing water or in lakes and rivers with slight currents.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cabomba aquatica", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,888 mm of 2,692 mm) falls in January to June. The temperature curve is flat, 1.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,692 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,888 mm of it January to June. Wettest month April at 359 mm, driest month September at 65 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,439 mm to 3,588 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,729 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,692 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: 28 to 39 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 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 21.5 °C, the absolute minimum 18.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 23.0 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 21.8 °C to 24.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.4 °C in October (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 21.5 °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: 64 to 69% 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 -44 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 Cabomba aquatica through the yearWarmest months August, September, October and November, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 23.0 °C; 2,692 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.15°20°25°30°35°40°38.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER18.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 28–39RH 64–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 65 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 °C28 / 27–3028 / 27–3128 / 27–3129 / 27–3028 / 27–3028 / 27–3029 / 28–3030 / 29–3130 / 29–3230 / 29–3330 / 28–3229 / 28–30
Night °C23 / 22–2423 / 22–2424 / 23–2524 / 23–2524 / 23–2523 / 22–2423 / 22–2423 / 22–2523 / 22–2524 / 23–2524 / 23–2523 / 23–25
Rain mm289 / 62–427249 / 69–348289 / 118–378359 / 199–448354 / 197–572348 / 132–432214 / 75–296123 / 49–20365 / 15–15668 / 15–205126 / 13–205208 / 53–373
DLI29 / 26–3730 / 27–3732 / 27–3530 / 26–3328 / 25–3028 / 25–3232 / 26–3436 / 30–3839 / 31–4138 / 31–4134 / 30–4029 / 27–38
RH %67 / 63–7066 / 62–7066 / 63–7067 / 65–7169 / 65–7269 / 63–7167 / 63–6965 / 62–6864 / 61–6864 / 59–6966 / 61–6868 / 63–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 65 grid cells holding the 90 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 1640:2104 (7.975, -74.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 18.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.6 °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 65 distinct grid cells holding 90 of the 90 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1640:2104 (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 8.00_-75.000, lapse-corrected -44 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 50 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.
NativeFrench Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North · introduced: Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaya · 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 marker4.738, -52.327 · in the densest population, 117 records (47% of those in range)
Kew's description“hydrosubshrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 251 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 90 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 187 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 50 km away. 18 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 161 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 251 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cabomba aquatica, photograph 1did not loadCabomba aquatica, photograph 2did not loadCabomba aquatica, photograph 3did not loadCabomba aquatica, photograph 4did not loadCabomba aquatica, photograph 5did not loadCabomba aquatica, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Brenda O'Grady, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (5); (c) agujaceratops, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Tibouchina aspera Tibouchina aspera Melastomataceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Judy GallagherNymphaea rudgeana Nymphaea rudgeana Rudge's waterlily Photo: CC BY, Eli Tovomita fructipendula Clusiaceae Euterpe oleracea Euterpe oleracea Assai palm Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitrePassiflora jussieui Passiflora jussieui Passifloraceae Photo: CC BY, fmunozClusia nemorosa Clusia nemorosa Clusiaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Cabomba 3 in the reference

Cabomba caroliniana Cabomba caroliniana Fanwort Photo: CC BY, Jaime McGuiganCabomba furcata Cabomba furcata Forked fanwort Photo: CC BY, Jacek PietruszewskiCabomba palaeformis Cabomba palaeformis Fish-grass Photo: CC BY, Leonel Roget

Names & registers

Also known as Cabomba aubletii; Nectris aquatica; Nectris peltata. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Cabomba schwartzii: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cabombaceae
Described by
Aubl.
Native to
French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam +8
Wild records
251 in range · 187 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 (4 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 8.00_-75.000, lapse-corrected -44 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
Wikimedia Commons commons 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 60 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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