Nepsera aquatica(Aubl.) Naudin

altea

WFO wfo-0001078882 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Nepsera aquatica, photographed by ritirene
fig. a ritirene, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-05-23 / obs. 131440915
Nepsera aquatica, photographed by Daniel Cahen
fig. b Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 60917501
Nepsera aquatica, photographed by Al Kordesch
fig. c Al Kordesch, CC0 1.0 / obs. 56562832
Nepsera aquatica, photographed by Gerry van Tonder
fig. d Gerry van Tonder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 45008896
Nepsera aquatica, photographed by Lena Struwe
fig. e Lena Struwe, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 14451655
Nepsera aquatica, photographed by Derek
fig. f Derek, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 6719456
Nepsera aquatica, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. g Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 6775367
Nepsera aquatica, photographed by Elliot Greiner
fig. h Elliot Greiner, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181582673

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 22 botanical countries

Regions where Nepsera aquatica is native: Belize, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Windward Is. BelizeBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela Leeward Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Nepsera aquatica, 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
Belize BLZ SOUTHERN AMERICA
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN

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 62 in flower of 65 examined

Peak flowering in Jan. Each bar is the share of Nepsera aquatica 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. 62 of 65 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. 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 11 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.

  • Aciotis aquatica (Aubl.) G.Don
  • Aciotis sieberi Triana
  • Homonoma aridum Bello
  • Melastoma aquaticum Aubl.
  • Rhexia aquatica (Aubl.) Sw.
  • Spennera aquatica (Aubl.) Mart. ex DC.
  • Spennera asphalti Crueg.
  • Spennera hydrophila Miq.
  • Spennera sieberi Steud.
  • Tibouchina aquatica (Aubl.) M.Gómez
  • Xeracina aquatica (Aubl.) Raf.

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.