Species
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Nelumbo lutea (Willd.) Pers.

American Lotos, American lotus, American nelumbo, Gelber Lotos (DE)

Climate known 11 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 lutea is a species of flowering plant in the family Nelumbonaceae. Common names include American lotus, yellow lotus, water-chinquapin, and volée. It is native to North America. The botanical name Nelumbo lutea Willd. is the currently recognized name for this species, which has been classified under the former names Nelumbium luteum and Nelumbo pentapetala, among others.

Text from Wikipedia, “Nelumbo lutea”, 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
(Willd.) Pers.
Native to
Ontario, Illinois, Iowa +41
Wild records
1580 in range· 354 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jul, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1093mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 115 mm (CHELSA)
Light
14–40DLI
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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1093 mm a year, wettest May at 115 mm, driest February at 67 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -11.7 °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 Cyamus flavicomus Salisb.; Cyamus luteus (Willd.) Nutt.; Cyamus mysticus Salisb.; Cyamus nelumbo Sm.; Cyamus pentapetalus (Walter) Pursh and 13 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (796 mm of 1093 mm) takes 8 months, March to October. Mean temperature moves 23.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September 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 1093 mm a year, wettest May at 115 mm, driest February at 67 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1093 mm a year at the habitat, 796 mm of it March to October. Wettest month May at 115 mm, driest February at 67 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 876 mm to 1428 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: 14 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 40 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 10, 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 -11.7 °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 -11.7 °C, the absolute minimum -26.7 °C, about 81 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -1.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells -8.4 °C to 9.1 °C), warmest day 31.1 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -11.7 °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: 56 to 59% 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 8 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jul; mean night from -1 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1093 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 806 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -26.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost37.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-26.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 14–40RH 56–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 806 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 °C8 / -1–1811 / 1–2016 / 7–2320 / 14–2625 / 20–3029 / 25–3231 / 27–3431 / 26–3427 / 22–3121 / 15–2714 / 8–238 / 2–19
Night °C-1 / -8–91 / -7–115 / -2–1410 / 4–1715 / 10–2020 / 16–2322 / 19–2522 / 18–2518 / 14–2312 / 8–196 / 1–141 / -6–10
Rain mm68 / 27–11967 / 32–12288 / 51–12692 / 68–117115 / 85–144115 / 97–182108 / 67–17694 / 62–17693 / 78–15591 / 70–13185 / 52–12277 / 38–132
DLI16 / 12–2021 / 18–2528 / 26–3234 / 32–3938 / 37–4140 / 39–4240 / 38–4336 / 34–4030 / 27–3323 / 19–2717 / 12–2214 / 10–18
RH %59 / 57–6358 / 56–6157 / 55–6056 / 54–5958 / 56–6158 / 57–6258 / 56–6359 / 55–6458 / 55–6257 / 55–6058 / 57–6059 / 57–63

Each figure is the median across the 806 grid cells holding the 1456 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 1073:1784 (36.325, -90.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -26.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -11.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.4 °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 806 distinct grid cells holding the 1456 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1073:1784 (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 36.50_-90.625, lapse-corrected -37 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 84 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.
NativeOntario, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Colombia· introduced: Vermont
Kew's description“rhizomatous hydrogeophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker32.875, -96.588 · in the densest population, 638 records (40% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1580 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 354 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1053 km away. 5 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 124 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 1580 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Nelumbo luteaNelumbo luteaNelumbo luteaNelumbo luteaNelumbo luteaNelumbo luteaNelumbo luteaNelumbo lutea

Photographs: Lythronax246, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Judy Gallagher, CC BY-SA, iNaturalist via GBIF; Annika Lindqvist, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; hr_dragonfly, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Richard Littauer, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Tim Millard, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Martyn Drabik-Hamshare, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF.

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 lutea, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Comparing carbon sequestration in temperate freshwater wetland communities
Blanca Bernal, William J. Mitsch (2011) · Global Change Biology
The Response of Macroinvertebrates to Aquatic Macrophyte Decomposition
Leonard A. Smock, D. L. Stoneburner (1980) · Oikos
Accretion and Vegetation Community Change in the Wax Lake Delta Following the Historic 2011 Mississippi River Flood
Melissa Vernon Carle, Charles E. Sasser, Harry H. Roberts (2013) · Journal of Coastal Research
Pollen and anther development in Nelumbo (Nelumbonaceae)
Sarah S. Kreunen, Jeffrey M. Osborn (1999) · American Journal of Botany
Nelumbonaceae: Systematic position and species diversification revealed by the complete chloroplast genome
Jianhua Xue, Wenpan Dong, Tao Cheng, Shiliang Zhou (2012) · Journal of Systematics and Evolution
Whole genome re-sequencing reveals evolutionary patterns of sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)
Longyu Huang, Mei Yang, Ling Li, Hui Li (2017) · Journal of Integrative Plant Biology
The Invasion and Spread of Phragmites australis during a Period of Low Water in a Lake Erie Coastal Wetland
Robert Whyte, Dawn Trexel-Kroll, David M. Klarer, Robert F. Shields (2008) · Journal of Coastal Research
Cyanide-Insensitive Respiration in Thermogenic Flowers ofVictoriaandNelumbo
Hanna Skubatz, Paula S. Williamson, Edward L. Schneider, B. J. D. Meeuse (1990) · Journal of Experimental Botany
The alkaloids of American lotus, Nelumbo lutea
S. Morris Kupchan, B. Dasgupta, Etsuko Fujita, Michelle King (1963) · Tetrahedron

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 not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 6 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
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 62 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.