Nymphaea dimorpha
| Nymphaea dimorpha | |
|---|---|
| Nymphaea dimorpha I.M.Turner with scale bar (10 cm) against a white background | |
| Nymphaea dimorpha cultivated in the Berlin Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Embryophytes |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Order: | Nymphaeales |
| Family: | Nymphaeaceae |
| Genus: | Nymphaea |
| Subgenus: | Nymphaea subg. Brachyceras |
| Species: | N. dimorpha |
| Binomial name | |
| Nymphaea dimorpha I.M.Turner[1] | |
| Nymphaea dimorpha is endemic to Madagascar[1] | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Nymphaea dimorpha is a species of waterlily endemic to Madagascar.[1]
Description
[edit]



This species exhibits two distinctive growth forms. The submerged growth form has very thin foliage with short petioles. The emergent form has floating leaves with longer petioles.[2]
Genomics
[edit]In 2026, a telomere-to-telomere gap-free genome assembly of Nymphaea dimorpha was published. The study referred to the species by its former name, Nymphaea minuta, which is now treated as a synonym of Nymphaea dimorpha. The assembled genome spans approximately 382 Mb and is organized into 14 chromosomes. The assembly has a BUSCO completeness score of 97.2% and 21,860 protein-coding genes were predicted. The study also generated a transcriptome atlas covering 15 organs and developmental stages, providing genomic resources for the study of early-diverging flowering plants.[3]
Cytology
[edit]The chromosome count is n = 14. The genome size is 449.88 Mb.[4]
Reproduction
[edit]Generative reproduction
[edit]Cleistogamy occurs in this species. It can produce flowers, which never open, but self-fertilise and never reach the water surface.[2][5]
Habitat
[edit]It grows in pools of water among slowly flowing streams.[2] The pools, which are darkened with organic material, are shaded by the canopy of tropical forest.[6]
Taxonomy
[edit]Taxonomic history
[edit]This species was first described as Nymphaea minuta K.C.Landon, R.A.Edwards & Nozaic in 2006. Later, it was discovered that this was a Nomen illegitimum, as the name was preoccupied by the French fossil waterlily Nymphaea minuta Saporta described in 1891. Therefore, the new name Nymphaea dimorpha I.M.Turner was chosen in 2014.[7]
Type specimen
[edit]The type specimen was collected in shaded rain pools beneath coastal forest near Tampolo, Madagascar in 1999.[8]
Placement within Nymphaea
[edit]It is a member of Nymphaea subgen. Brachyceras.[2]
Etymology
[edit]The specific epithet dimorpha references the two distinctive growth forms of this species.[7] The prefix di- means "two",[9] and -morph means shape.[10]
Cultivation
[edit]It is easily cultivated and suitable for low-light conditions.[2] In cultivation it may grow four times larger than plants observed in their natural habitat. This is due to better fertilisation.[6] It is very sensitive to cold temperatures.[11]
It is used in hybridisation to create new smaller waterlily cultivars.[5]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 "Nymphaea dimorpha I.M.Turner". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Landon, Kenneth; Edwards, Richard A.; Nozaic, P. Ivan (2006). "A New Species of Waterlily (Nymphaea minuta: Nymphaeaceae) from Madagascar". SIDA, Contributions to Botany. 22 (2): 887–893. ISSN 0036-1488. JSTOR 41969055.
- ↑ Chen, Hongliang; Liang, Yufan; Xue, Jia-Yu; Chen, Fei (2026). "A telomere-to-telomere genome assembly of Nymphaea minuta provides details into the developmental transcriptome atlas and adaptive regulatory mechanisms". Horticulture Research. 13 (6) uhag085. doi:10.1093/hr/uhag085. PMC 13254204. PMID 42292955.
- ↑ Chen, Fei; Liu, Xing; Yu, Cuiwei; Chen, Yuchu; Tang, Haibao; Zhang, Liangsheng (2017). "Water lilies as emerging models for Darwin's abominable mystery". Horticulture Research. 4: 17051. doi:10.1038/hortres.2017.51. PMC 5626932. PMID 28979789.
- 1 2 Sacher, R. (2008, February). This tiny waterlily brings new potential for small hybrids - Lusty Li'l Nymphaea minuta. Water Gardeners International. Retrieved July 12, 2023
- 1 2 Landon, K. C., Edwards, R. A., & Nozaic, I. P. (2005). A New Species of Waterlily, Nymphaea sp., from Madagascar. Water Garden Journal, 20(4).
- 1 2 Turner, I. M. (2014, October). "Names of extant angiosperm species that are illegitimate homonyms of fossils." In Annales Botanici Fennici (Vol. 51, No. 5, pp. 305–317). Finnish Zoological and Botanical Publishing Board.
- ↑ Nymphaea minuta | International Plant Names Index. (n.d.). Retrieved July 12, 2023, from https://www.ipni.org/n/60445240-2
- ↑ Di definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary. (2023). Retrieved July 13, 2023, from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/di
- ↑ Morph definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary. (2023). Retrieved July 13, 2023, from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/morph
- ↑ Yang, K. (2022). "Leaf Anatomic Structure and Cold Tolerance Evaluation of 6 Nymphaea Species." Plant Gene and Trait, 13.