Nymphaea thermarum

Nymphaea thermarum is a dwarf water lily native to Rwanda, known as the world’s smallest water lily. It is extinct in the wild and survives in cultivation.

Rwanda: A landlocked country in East Africa, home to a rich range of highland and tropical habitats. The species was known only from a small geothermal spring in this country.
Nymphaeaceae: The family of aquatic flowering plants commonly called water lilies. Nymphaea thermarum belongs to this family but differs from familiar water lilies in its habitat.
Ex situ conservation: The protection of species outside their natural habitats, including in botanical gardens and seed banks. Botanical gardens maintain living plants after the wild population disappeared.
Extinction in the wild: A conservation status in which a species survives only in cultivation, captivity, or outside its natural range. This status describes the species’ current survival outside its former Rwandan habitat.
Mashyuza: A geothermal spring area in western Rwanda, historically associated with Nymphaea thermarum. This spring’s warm, shallow water was the lily’s sole known wild habitat.
Nymphaea: A genus of aquatic flowering plants that includes water lilies from temperate and tropical regions. The species is a member of this genus, whose relatives generally grow in deeper water.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: A botanical institution in London that maintains plant collections and conducts botanical research. Kew cultivated the species after receiving seeds from Rwanda.
IUCN Red List: A global assessment system that classifies species’ extinction risk and conservation status. Its categories distinguish the lily’s severe risk from the fact that cultivated plants persist.
Albertine Rift: A biodiversity-rich region along the western branch of the East African Rift. The Rwandan spring lies within a region whose exceptional endemism frames the species’ conservation value.
Aquatic plant: A plant adapted to living in water or persistently wet environments. Its aquatic adaptations coexist with an unusual need for exposed, damp soil.

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