Species
+

Tropaeolum majus L.

Große Kapuzinerkresse (DE); Nasturtium (EN); Maranuela (ES), Indian cress, Lark's Heel, Monk Cress

Climate known 65 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

Tropaeolum majus, the garden nasturtium, nasturtium, Indian cress or monk's cress, is a species of flowering plant in the family Tropaeolaceae. An annual or a short-lived perennial with disc-shaped leaves and brilliant yellow, orange or red flowers, it is of cultivated, probably hybrid origin. It is not closely related to the genus Nasturtium.

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

About the genus · Tropaeolum

Tropaeolum, commonly known as nasturtium, is a genus of roughly 80 species of annual and perennial herbaceous flowering plants. It was named by Carl Linnaeus in his book Species Plantarum and is the only genus in the family Tropaeolaceae. The nasturtiums received their common name because they produce an oil similar to that of watercress.

Text from Wikipedia, “Tropaeolum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Tropaeolaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Peru
Wild records
30 in range· 7 open

At a glance

Warmest month
17°C
Oct, mean day; nights 9 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
676mm/yr
8 wet months · peak Mar 112 mm (CHELSA)
Light
31–43DLI
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 sharp rainy season, November to April at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (1.2 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 676 mm a year, wettest March at 112 mm, driest July at 12 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 5.4 °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 Cardamindum majus (L.) Moench; Nasturtium indicum Garsault; Tropaeolum atrosanguineum Godr.; Tropaeolum atrosanguineum Gordon; Tropaeolum chaixianum É.Morren and 35 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to April at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (1.2 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

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

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (509 mm of 676 mm) falls in November to April. The temperature curve is flat, 1.2 °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; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

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 676 mm a year, wettest March at 112 mm, driest July at 12 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

676 mm a year at the habitat, 509 mm of it November to April. Wettest month March at 112 mm, driest July at 12 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 28 mm to 1815 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 31 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 43 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 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

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 5.4 °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 5.4 °C, the absolute minimum 3.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 21.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 7.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 3.8 °C to 15.0 °C), warmest day 17.4 °C in October (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.4 °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: 61 to 68% 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 16 °C in Jul to 17 °C in Oct; mean night from 8 °C in Jul to 9 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 676 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 24 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 3.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 21.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°21.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)3.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 31–43RH 61–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 24 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 °C17 / 13–2317 / 13–2417 / 13–2417 / 13–2217 / 13–2017 / 13–1916 / 13–1917 / 14–1917 / 14–1917 / 15–2017 / 14–2017 / 14–21
Night °C9 / 6–209 / 6–219 / 6–219 / 6–199 / 5–178 / 4–168 / 4–158 / 4–158 / 5–159 / 5–159 / 6–179 / 6–18
Rain mm69 / 2–22789 / 2–249112 / 2–26075 / 2–25018 / 2–17213 / 2–8912 / 2–5820 / 3–5536 / 3–11768 / 2–16180 / 2–16784 / 2–200
DLI39 / 30–4338 / 29–4238 / 30–4037 / 28–3834 / 28–3731 / 27–3532 / 28–3636 / 31–4040 / 32–4643 / 33–4743 / 31–4741 / 29–45
RH %68 / 63–7368 / 63–7268 / 64–7167 / 61–7466 / 54–7464 / 51–7362 / 50–7361 / 52–7362 / 53–7365 / 54–7366 / 56–7467 / 60–74

Each figure is the median across the 24 grid cells holding the 28 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 1822:2028 (-1.125, -78.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 21.7 °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 24 distinct grid cells holding the 28 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1822:2028 (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 -1.00_-78.750, lapse-corrected -283 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2675 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.
NativePeru· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Baleares, France, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Kriti, Romania, Central European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Madeira, Cameroon, Rwanda, Zaïre, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Angola, Free State, Ascension, St.Helena, Mauritius, Réunion, Buryatiya, East Aegean Is., Lebanon-Syria, Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, China South-Central, Tibet, Korea, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Vietnam, Norfolk Is., Tasmania, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Hawaii, Oregon, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, California, Mexico Central, Mexico Northwest, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Chile Central, Juan Fernández Is., Uruguay, Amsterdam-St.Paul Is., Tristan da Cunha
Kew's description“annual” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-12.086, -76.994 · in the densest population, 18 records (60% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 30 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 7 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 754 km away. 1759 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 2 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 30 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Tropaeolum majusTropaeolum majusTropaeolum majusTropaeolum majusTropaeolum majusTropaeolum majusTropaeolum majusTropaeolum majus

Photographs: (c) Antonio W. Salas, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Kate McAlpine, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Dave Richardson, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) alessandradalia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).

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

Comparative deep transcriptional profiling of four developing oilseeds
Manuel Adrián Troncoso-Ponce, Aruna Kilaru, Xia Cao, Timothy P. Durrett (2011) · The Plant Journal
A gene from the cellulose synthase-like C family encodes a β-1,4 glucan synthase
Jean‐Christophe Cocuron, Olivier Lerouxel, Georgia Drakakaki, Ana Paula Alonso (2007) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Rapid biosynthesis and characterization of silver nanoparticles from the leaf extract of Tropaeolum majus L. and its enhanced in-vitro antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant and anticancer properties
Saritha Valsalam, Paul Agastian, Mariadhas Valan Arasu, Naïf Abdullah Al-Dhabi (2018) · Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B Biology
Nutritional Composition and Antioxidant Capacity in Edible Flowers: Characterisation of Phenolic Compounds by HPLC-DAD-ESI/MSn
INMACULADA NAVARRO-GONZÁLEZ, Rocío González‐Barrio, Verónica García‐Valverde, Ana Belén Bautista‐Ortín (2014) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Antihypertensive effects of isoquercitrin and extracts from Tropaeolum majus L.: Evidence for the inhibition of angiotensin converting enzyme
Arquimedes Gasparotto, Francielly Mourão Gasparotto, Emerson Luiz Botelho Lourenço, Sandra Crestani (2010) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Lotus-Like Biomimetic Hierarchical Structures Developed by the Self-Assembly of Tubular Plant Waxes
Bharat Bhushan, Yong Chae Jung, Adrian Niemietz, Kerstin Koch (2009) · Langmuir

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.

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 answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
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 89 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.