Species
+

Nymphaea rubra Roxb. ex Andr.

Nymphaeaceae

Climate known 7 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

Nymphaea rubra is a species of waterlily native to the region spanning from Sri Lanka and northeastern India to western and central Malesia. Additionally, it has been introduced to regions such as Southeast China, Cuba, Guyana, Hungary, and Suriname.

Text from Wikipedia, “Nymphaea rubra”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

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 ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Nymphaea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Nymphaeaceae
Described by
Roxb. ex Andr.
Native to
Assam, Bangladesh, India +9
Wild records
927 in range· 179 open

At a glance

Warmest month
33°C
Apr, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1470mm/yr
9 wet months · peak Sep 243 mm (CHELSA)
Light
29–40DLI
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: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1470 mm a year, wettest September at 243 mm, driest January at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 13.6 °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 Castalia magnifica Salisb.; Castalia rubra (Roxb. ex Andrews) Tratt.; Leuconymphaea rubra (Roxb. ex Andrews) Kuntze; Nymphaea magnifica (Salisb.) Conard; Nymphaea rosea (Sims) Sweet and 11 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1062 mm of 1470 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.2 °C against a yearly mean of 26.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December 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 1470 mm a year, wettest September at 243 mm, driest January at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1470 mm a year at the habitat, 1062 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 243 mm, driest January at 14 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 924 mm to 3076 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: 29 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 29 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

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 13.6 °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 13.6 °C, the absolute minimum 6.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 12.0 °C to 23.7 °C), warmest day 32.6 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.6 °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: 58 to 66% 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 28 °C in Dec to 33 °C in Apr; mean night from 20 °C in Jan to 25 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1470 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 556 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 6.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 43.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°50°43.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)6.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 29–40RH 58–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 556 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 °C28 / 24–3130 / 26–3332 / 28–3533 / 29–3732 / 29–3731 / 28–3430 / 27–3330 / 27–3230 / 27–3229 / 27–3128 / 26–3028 / 24–30
Night °C20 / 12–2421 / 14–2422 / 18–2524 / 21–2625 / 22–2725 / 21–2725 / 21–2624 / 21–2624 / 21–2623 / 20–2522 / 17–2420 / 13–24
Rain mm14 / 2–17619 / 4–12337 / 10–19580 / 9–225168 / 36–297183 / 71–571214 / 89–577226 / 103–475243 / 130–364196 / 85–34273 / 13–32217 / 5–268
DLI33 / 28–3637 / 32–4040 / 35–4340 / 35–4535 / 31–4432 / 26–3630 / 25–3429 / 24–3530 / 27–3530 / 28–3430 / 27–3230 / 25–33
RH %58 / 52–6658 / 49–6559 / 47–6561 / 50–6763 / 53–6865 / 57–7066 / 61–7166 / 61–7066 / 62–6964 / 59–6962 / 54–6859 / 52–67

Each figure is the median across the 556 grid cells holding the 854 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 1486:5605 (15.675, 100.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.1 °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 556 distinct grid cells holding the 854 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1486:5605 (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 15.50_100.000, lapse-corrected -32 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 24 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.
NativeAssam, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Malaya, Philippines· introduced: Hungary, China Southeast, Mexico Southeast, Cuba, Guyana, Surinam
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker20.267, 105.914 · in the densest population, 267 records (29% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 927 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 179 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2702 km away. 273 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 73 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 927 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Nymphaea rubraNymphaea rubraNymphaea rubraNymphaea rubraNymphaea rubraNymphaea rubra

Photographs: Roman Soroka, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Nicolás Tamargo, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF; ymgan, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF; Navaneeth Sini George, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Sagnik Dutta Roy, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

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

Immunomodulating Activity of Nymphaea rubra Roxb. Extracts: Activation of Rat Dendritic Cells and Improvement of the TH1 Immune Response
Jai‐Hong Cheng, Shau-Yu Lee, Yi-Yang Lien, Meng‐Shiou Lee (2012) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Removal of Chromium from Synthetic Effluent using Nymphaea rubra
Rafi Yasmin Taj, Sahaderan Renganathan, Nagarajan Partha, G. Baskar (2009) · CLEAN - Soil Air Water
Nymphaea rubra Roxb. ex Andrews cultivated as an ornamental, food and vegetable in the North Eastern region of India
Sagolsem Asharani Devi, Biseshwori Thongam, Pratap Jyoti Handique (2014) · Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution
Extraction and physical characterization of Nymphaea Rubra (water lily) cellulosic fiber for potential textile and green-composite application
Md. Shamsul Arefin Imtiazh, Mohammad Abbas Uddin (2025) · International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Cytogenetics of Aquatic Ornamentals
P. P. Gupta (1977) · CYTOLOGIA
Phytoconstituents of Nymphaea rubra flowers and their anti-diabetic metabolic targets
Nayab Ishrat, Annie Gupta, Mohammad Faheem Khan, Uzma Shahab (2024) · Fitoterapia
NUTRITIONAL AND ANTINUTRITIONAL ASSESSMENT OF SOME UNDERUTILIZED CORMS, RHIZOMES AND TUBERS
Tresina Soris Tresina Soris, A. Döss, V. R. Mohan (2020) · Tropical and Subtropical Agroecosystems
Aquatic weeds diversity of Bangladesh Agricultural University Campus, Mymensingh, Bangladesh
Md. Delwarul Islam, SM Rahmatullah, Meraz Ahmed, Abdulla Al Asif (2017) · Asian-Australasian Journal of Bioscience and Biotechnology

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 Nymphaea 7 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: 11 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 19 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.