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Nymphaea thermarum
Also called Pygmy Rwandan Water Lily
Nymphaea thermarum is a tiny aquatic water lily endemic to southwest Rwanda, once thought extinct in the wild. It is grown as a small pond plant in warm, still water with plenty of light.
Nymphaea thermarum, also known as Miniature Rwandan water lily, is a species of water lily that is endemic to Rwanda. Once thought to be extinct in the wild, all wild plants were believed to be lost due to destruction of its native habitat, but it was thought to be saved from extinction when it was grown from seed at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 2009. A previously-unknown wild population was discovered in 2023.
It has been proposed to be used as a model species for basal angiosperms, due to its small size, rapid lifecycle, and small genome. For instance, together with Nymphaea dimorpha it has been used to study seed evolution.
White Water-lily · Dotleaf waterlily · Nymphaea nouchali var. zanzibariensis · Giant waterlily · Yellow waterlily · Egyptian lotus · Blue Lotus · American white waterlily · Hairy Water Lily · Waterlily
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Nymphaea thermarum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
