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Nymphaea candida; photograph (c) Мирослав Соболев, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Мирослав Соболев, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-07-13

Nymphaea candida C.Presl

White water lily

Nymphaeaceae · Finland, Norway +28

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Nymphaea candida, photograph (c) Мирослав Соболев, some rights reserved (CC BY)Nymphaea candida, photograph (c) Марина Садыкова, some rights reserved (CC BY)Nymphaea candida, photograph (c) Марина Садыкова, some rights reserved (CC BY)Nymphaea candida, photograph (c) Марина Садыкова, some rights reserved (CC BY)Nymphaea candida, photograph (c) Марина Садыкова, some rights reserved (CC BY)Nymphaea candida, photograph (c) Stanislav Murashkin, some rights reserved (CC BY) 127 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-18.7°C
Record low -33.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
20°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
727mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
1–34DLI
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 December, 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

Nymphaea candida is a species of perennial, aquatic, rhizomatous herb in the family Nymphaeaceae native to the region spanning from Europe to Siberia and Western Himalaya.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Nymphaea candida", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Nymphaea

Nymphaea is a genus of hardy and tender aquatic plants in the family Nymphaeaceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution. Many species are cultivated as ornamental plants, and many cultivars have been bred. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (510 mm of 727 mm) falls in June to December, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 7.8 °C against a yearly mean of 4.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to June.

Rain

727 mm in the median year at the habitat, 510 mm of it June to December. Wettest months (2 at 88 mm), driest month April at 37 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 618 mm to 906 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 727 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 727 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: 1 to 34 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 0, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -18.7 °C, the absolute minimum -33.1 °C, 7,740 frost nights in 44 years, 175.9 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 25.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -9.8 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range -13.3 °C to -4.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 20.3 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -18.7 °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: 56 to 72% 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 -229 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 Nymphaea candida through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 20 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low -9.8 °C; 727 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.-40°-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost25.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-33.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 1–34RH 56–72%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 1434 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 °C-4 / -8–0-5 / -8–00 / -3–47 / 3–1114 / 10–1718 / 15–2120 / 18–2319 / 16–2113 / 11–167 / 4–101 / -3–4-3 / -6–1
Night °C-9 / -14–-4-10 / -13–-5-6 / -9–-2-1 / -4–25 / 2–810 / 8–1213 / 11–1512 / 9–148 / 5–93 / -1–5-3 / -7–1-8 / -12–-3
Rain mm51 / 40–7038 / 31–5441 / 32–5837 / 32–5050 / 41–6777 / 62–9288 / 69–10888 / 69–10468 / 57–8471 / 57–9263 / 50–8655 / 46–75
DLI2 / 1–46 / 4–914 / 12–1825 / 23–2733 / 31–3534 / 33–3733 / 29–3525 / 21–2815 / 12–187 / 5–102 / 1–51 / 0–3
RH %72 / 67–7569 / 66–7364 / 62–6659 / 57–6156 / 55–5858 / 56–6060 / 58–6162 / 60–6364 / 62–6667 / 64–7170 / 67–7471 / 68–75
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 1434 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1569 records in those cells; 19 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are 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 601:3787 (59.925, 9.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -33.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -18.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 25.0 °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 1434 distinct grid cells holding 1569 of the 1589 in-range records (19 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 601:3787 (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 60.00_9.375, lapse-corrected -229 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 352 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.
NativeFinland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, France, Romania, Belarus, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Altay, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, West Siberia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Xinjiang, Mongolia, West Himalaya · 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 marker61.295, 24.319 · in the densest population, 864 records (46% of those in range)
Extinct inSwitzerland · recorded as extinct by WCVP: history, not habitat; no records are tested against these regions
Kew's description“rhizomatous hydrogeophyte” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1868 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1569 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1589 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1466 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 11 km away. 279 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 1868 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Nymphaea candida, photograph 1did not loadNymphaea candida, photograph 2did not loadNymphaea candida, photograph 3did not loadNymphaea candida, photograph 4did not loadNymphaea candida, photograph 5did not loadNymphaea candida, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Мирослав Соболев, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Марина Садыкова, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Stanislav Murashkin, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Galium trifidum Galium trifidum Three-petal bedstraw Photo: CC BY, Allison GrayCentaurea phrygia Centaurea phrygia Wig knapweed Photo: CC BY, Natalia KazakovaRibes spicatum Ribes spicatum Downy currant Photo: CC BY, Марина СадыковаLuzula pallescens Luzula pallescens Fen Wood-rush Photo: CC BY, Dmitriy BochkovEquisetum pratense Equisetum pratense Meadow horsetail Photo: CC BY, snaily_nailyRanunculus reptans Ranunculus reptans Creeping spearwort Photo: CC BY, Sam Turner

Other Nymphaea 20 in the reference

Nymphaea alba Nymphaea alba European white water-lily Photo: CC BY, Nick ButcherNymphaea ampla Nymphaea ampla Dotleaf waterlily Photo: CC0, author not statedNymphaea × daubenyana Nymphaea × daubenyana Nymphaeaceae Photo: CC BY, David GarzaNymphaea elegans Nymphaea elegans Blue water-lily Photo: CC BY, Mike DuranNymphaea gigantea Nymphaea gigantea Giant water-lily Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyNymphaea gracilis Nymphaea gracilis Nymphaeaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Oscar Alejandro Morales JuárezNymphaea jamesoniana Nymphaea jamesoniana James' waterlily Photo: CC BY, Claudio Cantú MuñizNymphaea lotus Nymphaea lotus White Egyptian lotus Photo: CC BY, Lucy Keith-DiagneNymphaea mexicana Nymphaea mexicana Banana water-lily Photo: CC BY, mfeaverNymphaea micrantha Nymphaea micrantha Blue Egyptian Lotus Photo: CC BY, Lucy Keith-DiagneNymphaea nouchali Nymphaea nouchali Blue lotus Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloNymphaea odorata Nymphaea odorata Fragrant water-lily Photo: CC BY, Bonnie Semmling all 21 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Castalia candida; Castalia candida f. aperta; Castalia candida f. campanulata; Castalia candida f. erythrostigma; Castalia candida f. patula and 37 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Nymphaeaceae
Described by
C.Presl
Native to
Finland, Norway, Sweden +27
Wild records
1868 in range · 1466 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 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
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; 8 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (8 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 60.00_9.375, lapse-corrected -229 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 605520-1 is Kew's for Nymphaea candida C.Presl
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 2026-10-22
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 92 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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