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Nymphaea violacea; photograph (c) Martin Rady, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Martin Rady, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-06-14

Nymphaea violacea Lehm.

Blue Waterlily

Nymphaeaceae · New Guinea, Northern Territory +2

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Nymphaea violacea, photograph (c) Martin Rady, some rights reserved (CC BY)Nymphaea violacea, photograph (c) Martin Rady, some rights reserved (CC BY)Nymphaea violacea, photograph (c) Martin Rady, some rights reserved (CC BY)Nymphaea violacea, photograph (c) Cody Hinchliff, some rights reserved (CC BY)Nymphaea violacea, photograph (c) Cody Hinchliff, some rights reserved (CC BY)Nymphaea violacea, photograph (c) Cody Hinchliff, some rights reserved (CC BY) 54 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
15.1°C
Record low 11.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
35°C
Oct and Nov at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,360mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
32–45DLI
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 September (December to March at the habitat), 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 violacea, also known as blue lily, is a species of flowering plant in the family Nymphaeaceae.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Nymphaea violacea", 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 (1,071 mm of 1,287 mm) falls in December to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 28.1 °C against a yearly mean of 26.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Rain

1,287 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,071 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 321 mm, driest months (2 at 2 mm); 3 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 807 mm to 1,800 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,360 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,287 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: 32 to 45 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 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 15.1 °C, the absolute minimum 11.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 18.2 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 13.8 °C to 20.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 35.4 °C in October (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.1 °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: 49 to 65% 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 +32 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 violacea through the yearWarmest months October and November, mean daily high 35 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 18.2 °C; 1,287 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°41.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER11.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 32–45RH 49–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 656 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 °C32 / 30–3431 / 29–3332 / 29–3432 / 28–3431 / 26–3329 / 24–3129 / 24–3231 / 25–3334 / 27–3635 / 29–3735 / 30–3733 / 30–36
Night °C25 / 23–2625 / 23–2624 / 22–2623 / 20–2522 / 18–2419 / 15–2218 / 14–2119 / 15–2121 / 18–2424 / 20–2625 / 22–2725 / 23–27
Rain mm321 / 202–422295 / 196–403242 / 108–32678 / 25–14314 / 6–383 / 1–222 / 1–172 / 0–146 / 2–2228 / 17–6883 / 53–154213 / 126–298
DLI36 / 34–4134 / 32–3836 / 34–3837 / 32–3834 / 28–3632 / 26–3434 / 27–3538 / 32–3942 / 40–4345 / 43–4644 / 42–4639 / 37–43
RH %64 / 59–6665 / 60–6762 / 56–6557 / 48–6252 / 45–6049 / 44–5949 / 42–5951 / 41–5953 / 43–6055 / 46–6057 / 50–6161 / 55–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 656 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1003 records in those cells; 6 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 2058:6309 (-12.925, 135.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.5 °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 656 distinct grid cells holding 1003 of the 1009 in-range records (6 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2058:6309 (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 -13.00_135.625, lapse-corrected +32 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 105 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.
NativeNew Guinea, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia · 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-12.649, 131.687 · in the densest population, 415 records (37% 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 1122 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1003 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1009 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1017 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 113 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 of the 1122 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 violacea, photograph 1did not loadNymphaea violacea, photograph 2did not loadNymphaea violacea, photograph 3did not loadNymphaea violacea, photograph 4did not loadNymphaea violacea, photograph 5did not loadNymphaea violacea, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Martin Rady, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Cody Hinchliff, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Antidesma ghaesembilla Antidesma ghaesembilla Black currant-tree Photo: CC BY-SA, Vikas D PrasadVitex glabrata Vitex glabrata Smooth chastetree Photo: CC BY-SA, Ruth PalssonXyris indica Xyris indica Xyridaceae Photo: CC BY, 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng ZengBridelia tomentosa Bridelia tomentosa Pikpoktai Photo: CC BY, Yu-Huang WangLimnophila fragrans Limnophila fragrans Limnophila Photo: CC BY, Thomas MesaglioPandanus spiralis Pandanus spiralis Screw-pine Photo: CC BY, Stella Fish

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 Nymphaea brownii; Nymphaea casparyi; Nymphaea gigantea var. violacea; Nymphaea holtzei; Nymphaea holtzei var. albiflora and 4 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Nymphaeaceae
Described by
Lehm.
Native to
New Guinea, Northern Territory, Queensland +1
Wild records
1122 in range · 1017 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; 5 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a zoo; 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 -13.00_135.625, lapse-corrected +32 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 25 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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