24 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
Summary
Coelogyne cristata is an epiphytic orchid that comes from cool, moist areas of the eastern Himalayas and Vietnam. It blooms every spring, before the snow begins to melt. Its genus name Coelogyne originates from two Greek words, koilos ("hollow") and gyne ("woman"), because of the orchid's concave stigma. Cristata takes its species name from crista, the Latin word for "comb", because of the look of the flower's lip.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Coelogyne cristata", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Grouped as an orchid, listed under the genus Coelogyne in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “pseudobulbous lithophyte”.
Seasons
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,263 mm of 2,898 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 19.9 °C against a yearly mean of 14.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.
Rain
2,898 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,263 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 736 mm, driest month November at 19 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,558 mm to 3,819 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,953 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,898 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 42 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 0.2 °C, the absolute minimum -2.9 °C, 128 frost nights in 44 years, 2.9 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 1.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -5.0 °C to 5.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.2 °C in June and July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 73% 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 +627 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.
Group. Listed under the genus Coelogyne in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “pseudobulbous lithophyte”. 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
Mean daily high from 12 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jun, Jul and Aug; mean nightly low from 1 °C in Jan to 17 °C in Jul and Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low. 2,898 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 59 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was -2.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 27.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 12 / 6–16 | 13 / 7–18 | 17 / 10–22 | 20 / 13–26 | 21 / 16–27 | 22 / 18–27 | 22 / 18–26 | 22 / 18–26 | 21 / 17–25 | 19 / 14–23 | 16 / 11–21 | 13 / 8–17 |
| Night °C | 1 / -5–6 | 2 / -5–7 | 5 / -2–9 | 8 / 2–13 | 11 / 6–16 | 15 / 10–19 | 17 / 12–20 | 17 / 12–20 | 15 / 10–18 | 10 / 4–14 | 6 / 0–10 | 3 / -3–7 |
| Rain mm | 32 / 20–56 | 47 / 27–72 | 72 / 35–109 | 113 / 49–179 | 237 / 75–311 | 468 / 162–664 | 736 / 404–1004 | 647 / 372–864 | 412 / 216–562 | 95 / 57–151 | 19 / 10–39 | 20 / 14–27 |
| DLI | 25 / 20–29 | 30 / 24–34 | 37 / 31–40 | 42 / 36–45 | 39 / 34–45 | 32 / 27–38 | 24 / 19–28 | 24 / 21–28 | 27 / 24–31 | 30 / 26–34 | 26 / 22–29 | 23 / 19–27 |
| RH % | 57 / 52–62 | 56 / 53–62 | 55 / 51–60 | 56 / 49–62 | 61 / 52–67 | 68 / 58–72 | 73 / 70–77 | 73 / 69–75 | 69 / 65–72 | 62 / 54–66 | 59 / 53–63 | 57 / 52–62 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Jakkarin Burananit, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Gary Yong Gee, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Hannah Rogers, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Paulmathi Vinod, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0.
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Bulbophyllum leopardinum Leopard Spotted Bulbophyllum Photo: CC BY-SA, Yercaud-elango
Dendrobium longicornu Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Jigu
Luculia gratissima Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Anastasia Titovets
Leucosceptrum canum Lamiaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Pleione praecox Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Sebastian Doak
Anthogonium gracile Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Sagnik Dutta RoyOther Coelogyne 76 in the reference
Coelogyne arachnites Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Forest Botial-Jarvis
Coelogyne articulata Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Cheng-Te Hsu
Coelogyne asperata Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Nielbert Raner
Coelogyne barbata Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Dalton Holland Baptista
Coelogyne beccarii Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Cheongweei Gan Coelogyne bigibbosa Orchidaceae 
Coelogyne brachyptera Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Dotuanhungdaklak at Vietnamese Wikipedia Coelogyne bracteosa Orchidaceae 
Coelogyne cantonensis Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, angryphyco Coelogyne carinata Orchidaceae Coelogyne carnea Orchidaceae all 77 ›Names & registers
Also known as Coelogyne cristata f. hololeuca; Coelogyne cristata var. hololeuca; Cymbidium speciosissimum; Pleione speciosissima. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-21gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 9 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (8 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-21climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 27.00_88.125, lapse-corrected +627 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 16 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.