Nelumbo lutea (Willd.) Pers.
American Lotos, American lotus, American nelumbo, Gelber Lotos (DE)
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.
At a glance
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.
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.
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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 8 / -1–18 | 11 / 1–20 | 16 / 7–23 | 20 / 14–26 | 25 / 20–30 | 29 / 25–32 | 31 / 27–34 | 31 / 26–34 | 27 / 22–31 | 21 / 15–27 | 14 / 8–23 | 8 / 2–19 |
| Night °C | -1 / -8–9 | 1 / -7–11 | 5 / -2–14 | 10 / 4–17 | 15 / 10–20 | 20 / 16–23 | 22 / 19–25 | 22 / 18–25 | 18 / 14–23 | 12 / 8–19 | 6 / 1–14 | 1 / -6–10 |
| Rain mm | 68 / 27–119 | 67 / 32–122 | 88 / 51–126 | 92 / 68–117 | 115 / 85–144 | 115 / 97–182 | 108 / 67–176 | 94 / 62–176 | 93 / 78–155 | 91 / 70–131 | 85 / 52–122 | 77 / 38–132 |
| DLI | 16 / 12–20 | 21 / 18–25 | 28 / 26–32 | 34 / 32–39 | 38 / 37–41 | 40 / 39–42 | 40 / 38–43 | 36 / 34–40 | 30 / 27–33 | 23 / 19–27 | 17 / 12–22 | 14 / 10–18 |
| RH % | 59 / 57–63 | 58 / 56–61 | 57 / 55–60 | 56 / 54–59 | 58 / 56–61 | 58 / 57–62 | 58 / 56–63 | 59 / 55–64 | 58 / 55–62 | 57 / 55–60 | 58 / 57–60 | 59 / 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
Photographs
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.
Related
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.
Chamaecrista fasciculata Golden Cassia
Verbena canadensis Verbenaceae
Eupatorium serotinum fall boneset
Phlox pilosa downy phlox
Symphoricarpos orbiculatus Buck Brush
Hibiscus laevis halberd-leaf rose-mallowOther 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 6 wild photographs already from the GBIF downloadinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery 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.








