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Nymphaea pulchella; photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-23

Nymphaea pulchella DC.

Nymphaeaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Southwest +16

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Nymphaea pulchella, photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Nymphaea pulchella, photograph (c) Henrique Bitencourt, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Nymphaea pulchella, photograph (c) Alex Baxter, some rights reserved (CC BY)Nymphaea pulchella, photograph (c) Alex Baxter, some rights reserved (CC BY)Nymphaea pulchella, photograph (c) Alex Baxter, some rights reserved (CC BY)Nymphaea pulchella, photograph (c) Gabriel M. Rolim, some rights reserved (CC BY) 52 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
18.3°C
Record low 15.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,117mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
31–38DLI
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, March to September (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

Nymphaea pulchella is a species of waterlily native to the regions spanning from Central and Southern Mexico to Brazil, as well as from the Bahamas to the Virgin Islands, including St. Croix.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Nymphaea pulchella", 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 sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (826 mm of 1,114 mm) falls in March to September. 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, southern 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

1,114 mm in the median year at the habitat, 826 mm of it March to September. Wettest month June at 145 mm, driest month November at 41 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 751 mm to 2,804 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,117 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,114 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 38 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 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 18.3 °C, the absolute minimum 15.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 22.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 19.1 °C to 24.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.4 °C in August and September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.3 °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: 60 to 64% 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 -78 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Nymphaea pulchella through the yearWarmest months February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 22.9 °C; 1,114 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, southern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°45°39.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER15.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 31–38RH 60–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 116 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 / 25–3229 / 25–3229 / 25–3229 / 26–3229 / 27–3229 / 27–3129 / 26–3229 / 26–3329 / 27–3329 / 27–3429 / 27–3429 / 26–33
Night °C23 / 19–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–2524 / 20–2524 / 19–2623 / 18–2623 / 18–2623 / 18–2624 / 19–2624 / 20–2523 / 19–25
Rain mm62 / 7–14569 / 6–16297 / 6–286114 / 18–303110 / 49–318145 / 34–316121 / 17–241117 / 6–236122 / 4–27570 / 8–26441 / 8–20646 / 11–180
DLI35 / 27–4037 / 30–4037 / 33–4236 / 31–4433 / 28–4331 / 26–4233 / 27–4337 / 30–4138 / 32–4336 / 30–4534 / 28–4432 / 27–41
RH %61 / 56–6660 / 56–6561 / 57–6662 / 58–6763 / 58–6964 / 56–7064 / 55–6963 / 53–6863 / 51–6863 / 50–6862 / 51–6761 / 53–67

Records on both sides of the equator: the 30 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 116 cells that remain: the 51 at least 10° north and the 65 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 116 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (145 records in those cells; 4 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 1927:2813 (-6.375, -39.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 15.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.8 °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 116 distinct grid cells holding 145 of the 191 in-range records (4 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the northern side of the equator (51 cells poleward of 10° north, 30 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1927:2813 (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 -6.50_-39.375, lapse-corrected -78 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 218 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 Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South · 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 marker-6.849, -38.682 · in the densest population, 194 records (36% of those in range)
Kew's description“rhizomatous hydrogeophyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 534 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 145 of them in the land cells it reads, of 191 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 382 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 14 km away. 32 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 343 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 534 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 pulchella, photograph 1did not loadNymphaea pulchella, photograph 2did not loadNymphaea pulchella, photograph 3did not loadNymphaea pulchella, photograph 4did not loadNymphaea pulchella, photograph 5did not loadNymphaea pulchella, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Henrique Bitencourt, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Alex Baxter, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Gabriel M. Rolim, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Cnidoscolus urens Cnidoscolus urens Bull-nettle Photo: CC BY, Marcello Mastroianni Albuquerque AraújoMimosa candollei Mimosa candollei Fourvalve mimosa Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández Morisonia hastata Capparaceae Bauhinia aculeata Bauhinia aculeata Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Raúl A. Ruiz M.Croton hirtus Croton hirtus Hairy Croton Photo: CC BY, Gustavo Heleno FerreiraPiscidia carthagenensis Piscidia carthagenensis Stinkwood Photo: CC0, author not stated

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 candida Nymphaea candida White water lily Photo: CC BY, Мирослав СоболевNymphaea × 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 Rebelo all 21 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Castalia pulchella; Nymphaea ampla subsp. pulchella; Nymphaea ampla subsp. speciosa; Nymphaea ampla var. hookeri; Nymphaea ampla var. pulchella and 8 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Nymphaeaceae
Described by
DC.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast +15
Wild records
534 in range · 382 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; 6 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium; 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 -6.50_-39.375, lapse-corrected -78 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 68 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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