Species
+

Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.

Asiatische Lotosblume (DE), Bean of India, East Indian lotus, Indian Lotus

Climate known 42 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Nelumbo nucifera, also known as Padma or Kamala, sacred lotus, pink lotus, Indian lotus, or simply lotus, is one of two extant species of aquatic plant in the family Nelumbonaceae. It is sometimes colloquially called water lily, though this more often refers to members of the family Nymphaeaceae. The lotus belongs in the order Proteales.

Text from Wikipedia, “Nelumbo nucifera”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Nelumbo

Nelumbo is a genus of aquatic plants with large, showy flowers. Members are commonly called lotus, though the name is also applied to various other plants and plant groups, including the unrelated genus Lotus. Members outwardly resemble those in the family Nymphaeaceae, but Nelumbo is actually very distant from that family.

Text from Wikipedia, “Nelumbo”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Nelumbonaceae
Described by
Gaertn.
Native to
South European Russia, Ukraine, Amur +33
Wild records
1242 in range· 347 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1161mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 176 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1161 mm a year, wettest July at 176 mm, driest January at 31 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 7.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Nelumbium album Bercht. & J.Presl; Nelumbium asiaticum Rich.; Nelumbium caspicum Fisch.; Nelumbium caspicum Fisch. ex DC.; Nelumbium caspium Eichw. and 38 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (856 mm of 1161 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.5 °C against a yearly mean of 22.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1161 mm a year, wettest July at 176 mm, driest January at 31 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1161 mm a year at the habitat, 856 mm of it May to October. Wettest month July at 176 mm, driest January at 31 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 622 mm to 2375 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 11, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 7.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 7.6 °C, the absolute minimum 1.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 11.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells -6.9 °C to 24.3 °C), warmest day 29.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 7.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 19 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Jul; mean night from 11 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1161 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 759 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 1.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost38.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)1.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 22–36RH 58–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 759 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C19 / 1–3120 / 3–3224 / 7–3426 / 14–3628 / 20–3429 / 23–3330 / 26–3230 / 26–3228 / 23–3227 / 16–3124 / 9–3120 / 3–30
Night °C11 / -7–2413 / -5–2416 / -1–2520 / 6–2621 / 12–2621 / 16–2623 / 19–2623 / 19–2621 / 15–2519 / 8–2516 / 1–2512 / -4–24
Rain mm31 / 4–25438 / 6–21359 / 14–21782 / 22–189111 / 23–246153 / 25–290176 / 24–365169 / 22–338162 / 17–29885 / 25–26761 / 17–25734 / 7–246
DLI22 / 13–3524 / 17–3831 / 23–4135 / 29–4336 / 30–4133 / 28–3932 / 26–3731 / 27–3729 / 25–3728 / 19–3825 / 14–3522 / 11–34
RH %59 / 52–6659 / 51–6659 / 49–6459 / 51–6561 / 51–6663 / 52–6864 / 55–6964 / 54–6863 / 55–6760 / 54–6759 / 54–6658 / 53–67

Each figure is the median across the 759 grid cells holding the 1095 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1359:5616 (22.025, 100.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 1.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 759 distinct grid cells holding the 1095 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1359:5616 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 22.00_100.625, lapse-corrected -418 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 718 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeSouth European Russia, Ukraine, Amur, Khabarovsk, Primorye, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Iran, China South-Central, Hainan, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, New Guinea, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia· introduced: Italy, Romania, Benin, Gabon, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Missouri, Massachusetts, New Jersey, West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Cuba, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is.
Kew's description“rhizomatous hydrogeophyte” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker31.375, 119.823 · in the densest population, 195 records (16% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1242 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 347 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5041 km away. 318 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 147 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1242 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Nelumbo nuciferaNelumbo nuciferaNelumbo nuciferaNelumbo nuciferaNelumbo nuciferaNelumbo nuciferaNelumbo nuciferaNelumbo nucifera

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Oleg Kosterin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Kim, Hyun-tae, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Nelumbo nucifera, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Diversity of structure, morphology and wetting of plant surfaces
Kerstin Koch, Bharat Bhushan, Wilhelm Barthlott (2008) · Soft Matter
Fabrication of artificial Lotus leaves and significance of hierarchical structure for superhydrophobicity and low adhesion
Kerstin Koch, Bharat Bhushan, Yong Chae Jung, Wilhelm Barthlott (2009) · Soft Matter
Self-Cleaning Efficiency of Artificial Superhydrophobic Surfaces
Bharat Bhushan, Yong Chae Jung, Kerstin Koch (2009) · Langmuir
Synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Nelumbo nucifera leaf extract and its larvicidal activity against malaria and filariasis vectors
Thirunavukkarasu Santhoshkumar, Abdul Abdul Rahuman, Govindasamy Rajakumar, Sampath Marimuthu (2010) · Parasitology Research
Anti-HIV benzylisoquinoline alkaloids and flavonoids from the leaves of Nelumbo nucifera, and structure–activity correlations with related alkaloids
Yoshiki Kashiwada, Akihiro Aoshima, Yasumasa Ikeshiro, Yuh-Pan Chen (2004) · Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry
Genome of the long-living sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.)
Ray Ming, Robert VanBuren, Yanling Liu, Mei Yang (2013) · Genome biology
Bacterial Retention on Superhydrophobic Titanium Surfaces Fabricated by Femtosecond Laser Ablation
Elena Fadeeva, Vi Khanh Truong, Meike Stiesch, Boris N. Chichkov (2011) · Langmuir
Integrated Syntenic and Phylogenomic Analyses Reveal an Ancient Genome Duplication in Monocots
Yuannian Jiao, Jingping Li, Haibao Tang, Andrew H. Paterson (2014) · The Plant Cell
Anti-obesity effect of Nelumbo nucifera leaves extract in mice and rats
Yuka Ono, Eri Hattori, Yukitaka Fukaya, Shoji Imai (2006) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Antioxidant activity of Nelumbo nucifera (sacred lotus) seeds
Sujay Rai, Atul Wahile, Kakali Mukherjee, Bishnu Pada Saha (2005) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
The sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)– phytochemical and therapeutic profile
Pulok K. Mukherjee, Debajyoti Mukherjee, Amal K. Maji, Sujay Rai (2009) · Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Nelumbo 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 98 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.