Waterlily back from the brink
28 May 2010
The world's smallest waterlily has been saved from extinction after a horticulturist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, solved the mystery of how to propagate it.
Nymphaea thermarum has leaves just 1cm across and is the only waterlily to live in mud, not water. The only known wild colony died out when its habitat in the overflow of a hot spring in Rwanda dried up.
Specimens rescued by German botanist Professor Eberhard Fischer, of Bonn Botanic Gardens, proved difficult to propagate, so Kew's waterlily propagation expert Carlos Magdalena stepped in. After months of experimenting, he succeeded in replicating conditions at the spring, sowing into pots of loam sunk in a container of water kept at a temperature of 25°C.
'Now we have over 30 healthy baby plants growing and some are producing seeds so soon we may have an army of these tiny waterlilies,' said Carlos. It's hoped the Rwandan spring can now be restored so the tiny waterlily can return to the wild.
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