Nelumbo nuciferaGaertn.

sacred lotus

WFO wfo-0000382378 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Nelumbo nucifera, photographed by Sabarni Sarker
fig. a Sabarni Sarker, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-25 / obs. 190637413
Nelumbo nucifera, photographed by Rod Lowther
fig. b Rod Lowther, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 189582007
Nelumbo nucifera, photographed by Sabarni Sarker
fig. c Sabarni Sarker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 188276203
Nelumbo nucifera, photographed by Kristof Zyskowski
fig. d Kristof Zyskowski, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202008439
Nelumbo nucifera, photographed by Kristof Zyskowski
fig. e Kristof Zyskowski, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202008149
Nelumbo nucifera, photographed by Aravinth
fig. f Aravinth, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 190599810
Nelumbo nucifera, photographed by Surabhi Srivastava
fig. g Surabhi Srivastava, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 180208950
Nelumbo nucifera, photographed by Navaneeth Sini George
fig. h Navaneeth Sini George, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 179327188

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 36 botanical countries

Regions where Nelumbo nucifera is native: Amur, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Iran, Japan, Khabarovsk, Korea, Manchuria, North Caucasus, Primorye, Transcaucasus, Assam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, South European Russia, Ukraine AmurChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanIranJapanKhabarovskManchuriaNorth CaucasusPrimoryeTranscaucasusAssamBangladeshCambodiaEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPakistanPhilippinesSri LankaThailandVietnamWest HimalayaNorthern TerritoryQueenslandWestern AustraliaSouth European RussiaUkraine Korea
Native distribution of Nelumbo nucifera, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
Cambodia CBD
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Pakistan PAK
Philippines PHI
Sri Lanka SRL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
Amur AMU ASIA-TEMPERATE
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Iran IRN
Japan JAP
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Manchuria CHM
North Caucasus NCS
Primorye PRM
Transcaucasus TCS
Northern Territory NTA AUSTRALASIA
Queensland QLD
Western Australia WAU
South European Russia RUS EUROPE
Ukraine UKR

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 550 in flower of 684 examined

Peak flowering in Jul. Each bar is the share of Nelumbo nucifera observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 550 of 684 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 35 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Nelumbium album Bercht. & J.Presl
  • Nelumbium asiaticum Rich.
  • Nelumbium caspicum Fisch. ex DC.
  • Nelumbium caspium Eichw.
  • Nelumbium discolor Steud.
  • Nelumbium indicum Poir.
  • Nelumbium javanicum Poir.
  • Nelumbium marginatum Steud.
  • Nelumbium nelumbo (L.) Druce
  • Nelumbium rheedei C.Presl
  • Nelumbium speciosum Willd.
  • Nelumbium speciosum f. caspicum (DC.) Regel
  • Nelumbium speciosum unranked album-plenum Jekyll & E.T.Cook
  • Nelumbium speciosum unranked roseum-plenum Jekyll & E.T.Cook
  • Nelumbium speciosum var. caspicum DC.
  • Nelumbium speciosum var. tamara DC.
  • Nelumbium tamara (DC.) Sweet
  • Nelumbium transversum C.Presl
  • Nelumbium turbinatum Blanco
  • Nelumbium venosum C.Presl
  • Nelumbo caspica (DC.) Fisch. ex Hoffm.
  • Nelumbo caspica Fisch.
  • Nelumbo caspica Schipcz.
  • Nelumbo indica Pers.

and 11 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.