Nymphaea micrantha Guill. & Perr.
Blue Egyptian Lotus; Dwarf Madagascar Lily
Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Nymphaea micrantha Guill. & Perr.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Guillaumin & Perr.




At a glance
- Jan, under 5 mm of rain
- Feb, under 5 mm of rain
- Mar, under 5 mm of rain
- Apr
- May
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct
- Nov, under 5 mm of rain
- Dec, under 5 mm of rain
Summary
Nymphaea micrantha is a water lily belonging to the genus Nymphaea. It is native to the tropics of West Africa.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Nymphaea micrantha", CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the genus · Nymphaea
Nymphaea is a genus of hardy and tender aquatic plants in the family Nymphaeaceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution. Many species are cultivated as ornamental plants, and many cultivars have been bred. More on Wikipedia ›
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Nymphaea", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (745 mm of 895 mm) falls in June to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 26.7 °C against a yearly mean of 27.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.
Rain
895 mm in the median year at the habitat, 745 mm of it June to September. Wettest month August at 245 mm, driest months (3 at 0 mm); 5 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 403 mm to 1,890 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 965 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 895 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 15.1 °C, the absolute minimum 11.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 18.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 15.4 °C to 24.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 37.6 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 35 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
How this section is made
Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.
Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -41 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.
Climate across the habitat
Habitat months, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 29 °C in Aug to 38 °C in Apr; mean nightly low from 19 °C in Jan and Dec to 25 °C in Apr, May and Jun. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 2 months in a row that tie for it. 895 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 78 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 11.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 43.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 32 / 28–34 | 35 / 28–37 | 37 / 29–39 | 38 / 29–40 | 36 / 28–40 | 33 / 27–38 | 30 / 26–35 | 29 / 26–33 | 30 / 26–35 | 31 / 27–37 | 34 / 28–36 | 32 / 28–34 |
| Night °C | 19 / 15–24 | 21 / 18–25 | 23 / 21–25 | 25 / 22–27 | 25 / 23–27 | 25 / 23–27 | 24 / 22–25 | 23 / 22–25 | 23 / 22–25 | 23 / 22–25 | 21 / 20–25 | 19 / 17–25 |
| Rain mm | 0 / 0–23 | 0 / 0–48 | 2 / 0–93 | 21 / 0–147 | 64 / 10–244 | 131 / 43–377 | 193 / 114–400 | 245 / 114–496 | 176 / 68–389 | 60 / 9–222 | 3 / 0–119 | 0 / 0–34 |
| DLI | 37 / 33–40 | 40 / 35–43 | 44 / 35–45 | 43 / 35–47 | 42 / 31–45 | 37 / 27–43 | 32 / 26–40 | 30 / 25–38 | 33 / 28–40 | 37 / 31–40 | 38 / 31–40 | 36 / 31–39 |
| RH % | 37 / 33–65 | 35 / 30–66 | 39 / 30–66 | 48 / 34–66 | 54 / 42–67 | 60 / 49–67 | 65 / 56–68 | 66 / 60–70 | 66 / 56–70 | 61 / 43–68 | 47 / 35–67 | 40 / 34–66 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Lucy Keith-Diagne, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Julien Renoult, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Matthew Blissett, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); Umar Musa, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Maarten Vanhove, CC BY-SA, via GBIF.
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Senegalia ataxacantha Flame acacia Photo: CC BY-SA, alanbedfordshaw Sabdariffa cannabina Malvaceae Albuca nigritana Nigerian Squill Other Nymphaea 20 in the reference
Nymphaea alba European white water-lily Photo: CC BY, Nick Butcher
Nymphaea ampla Dotleaf waterlily Photo: CC0, author not stated
Nymphaea candida White water lily Photo: CC BY, Мирослав Соболев
Nymphaea × daubenyana Nymphaeaceae Photo: CC BY, David Garza
Nymphaea elegans Blue water-lily Photo: CC BY, Mike Duran
Nymphaea gigantea Giant water-lily Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg Tasney
Nymphaea gracilis Nymphaeaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Oscar Alejandro Morales Juárez
Nymphaea jamesoniana James' waterlily Photo: CC BY, Claudio Cantú Muñiz
Nymphaea lotus White Egyptian lotus Photo: CC BY, Lucy Keith-Diagne
Nymphaea mexicana Banana water-lily Photo: CC BY, mfeaver
Nymphaea nouchali Blue lotus Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony Rebelo
Nymphaea odorata Fragrant water-lily Photo: CC BY, Bonnie Semmling all 21 ›Names & registers
Also known as Nymphaea abbreviata; Nymphaea caerulea var. albida; Nymphaea rufescens; Nymphaea stellata var. bulbillifera; Nymphaea vivipara. (GBIF Backbone)
Kew accepts as species of their own Nymphaea guineensis: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)
The record
Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →
Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 2882414 is Nymphaea micrantha Guillaumin & Perr.; the page links Kew's Nymphaea micrantha Guill. & Perr., and the name is cited as Kew cites itgbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 9.00_18.125, lapse-corrected -41 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22commons answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 44 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.




