Species
+

Nymphaea tetragona Georgi

Pygmy water-lily, Pygmy waterlily, northern small white water-lily, pygmy water-lily

Climate known 85 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Nymphaea tetragona is an aquatic perennial, species of flowering plant commonly called pygmy waterlily and small white water lily, belonging to the family Nymphaeaceae.

Text from Wikipedia, “Nymphaea tetragona”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

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 ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Nymphaea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Nymphaeaceae
Described by
Georgi
Native to
Finland, Baltic States, East European Russia +43
Wild records
1490 in range· 1244 open

At a glance

Warmest month
20°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
762mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 96 mm (CHELSA)
Light
1–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to December in the northern hemisphere (June to December at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 762 mm a year, wettest July at 96 mm, driest April at 38 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 1 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -27.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Castalia crassifolia Hand.-Mazz.; Castalia pygmaea Salisb.; Castalia rudgeana Tratt.; Castalia tetragona (Georgi) G.Lawson; Leuconymphaea tetragona (Georgi) Kuntze and 25 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to December in the northern hemisphere (June to December at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (536 mm of 762 mm) falls in June to December, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 7.2 °C against a yearly mean of 3.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 762 mm a year, wettest July at 96 mm, driest April at 38 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

762 mm a year at the habitat, 536 mm of it June to December. Wettest month July at 96 mm, driest April at 38 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 524 mm to 1750 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 1 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 1 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 0, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor -27.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -27.8 °C, the absolute minimum -43.3 °C, about 178 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 25.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -11.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells -24.2 °C to -1.8 °C), warmest day 20.3 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -27.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 74% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from -7 °C in Jan to 20 °C in Jul; mean night from -11 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 762 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1051 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -43.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 25.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-60°-40°-20°20°40°frost25.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-43.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 1–34RH 57–74 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1051 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-7 / -16–5-6 / -12–7-1 / -4–115 / 3–1613 / 10–2117 / 16–2420 / 19–2718 / 16–2812 / 10–256 / 3–19-1 / -6–13-4 / -14–8
Night °C-11 / -24–-2-11 / -22–-1-7 / -14–2-2 / -5–74 / 1–1210 / 8–1714 / 12–2112 / 10–228 / 4–182 / -3–12-4 / -15–6-9 / -22–1
Rain mm52 / 17–9139 / 14–9042 / 17–12038 / 23–12255 / 39–15781 / 64–19996 / 76–25394 / 81–22571 / 56–20873 / 37–14864 / 29–11557 / 20–84
DLI2 / 1–176 / 4–2214 / 12–2825 / 23–3433 / 30–3734 / 32–3832 / 29–3524 / 21–3214 / 12–276 / 5–232 / 1–171 / 0–15
RH %74 / 57–7672 / 57–7465 / 57–6760 / 55–6157 / 54–6258 / 56–6560 / 59–6863 / 61–6765 / 60–6767 / 58–7172 / 58–7574 / 57–76

Each figure is the median across the 1051 grid cells holding the 1221 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 536:4127 (63.175, 26.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -43.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -27.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 25.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1051 distinct grid cells holding the 1221 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 536:4127 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 63.00_26.250, lapse-corrected -13 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 114 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeFinland, Baltic States, East European Russia, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Altay, Buryatiya, Chita, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, Amur, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Primorye, Sakhalin, Kazakhstan, China South-Central, Hainan, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, West Himalaya, Myanmar, Vietnam, Alaska, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Washington
Kew's description“rhizomatous hydrogeophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker62.963, 28.278 · in the densest population, 505 records (34% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1490 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1244 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 25 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 269 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1490 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Nymphaea tetragonaNymphaea tetragonaNymphaea tetragonaNymphaea tetragonaNymphaea tetragonaNymphaea tetragonaNymphaea tetragonaNymphaea tetragona

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Dustin Snider, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Nymphaea tetragona, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Inhibitory effects of natural plants of Jeju Island on elastase and MMP‐1 expression
Young Heui Kim, Ki Soo Kim, Chang Sung Han, Hong Yang (2007) · International Journal of Cosmetic Science
The effects of exogenous salicylic acid on alleviating cadmium toxicity in Nymphaea tetragona Georgi
Chao Gu, Yuan Yang, Yuhang Shao, K.-W. Wu (2017) · South African Journal of Botany
Modulation of quorum sensing-controlled virulence factors by Nymphaea tetragona (water lily) extract
Md. Akil Hossain, Seung‐Jin Lee, Jiyong Park, Md. Ahsanur Reza (2015) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Green synthesis of platinum nanoparticles by Nymphaea tetragona flower extract and their skin lightening, antiaging effects
Yisen Zhang, Shuo Cheng, Huiling Jia, Juanjuan Zhou (2022) · Arabian Journal of Chemistry
Synergistic Effect and Antiquorum Sensing Activity ofNymphaea tetragona(Water Lily) Extract
Md. Akil Hossain, Jiyong Park, Jin-Yoon Kim, Joo‐Won Suh (2014) · BioMed Research International
Phytoremediation of Copper Pollution by Eight Aquatic Plants
Dongfang Lu, Qitang Huang, Chuanyuan Deng, Yushan Zheng (2017) · Polish Journal of Environmental Studies
Geraniin, a Hydrolyzable Tannin fromNymphaea tetragonaGeorgi (Nymphaeaceae)
Hideyuki Kurihara, Jun Kawabata, Mutsuo Hatano (1993) · Bioscience Biotechnology and Biochemistry
Microbial community of nitrogen cycle‐related genes in aquatic plant rhizospheres of Lake Liangzi in winter
Xingjia Yin, Guanglong Liu, Peng Lei, Yumei Hua (2018) · Journal of Basic Microbiology
Morphological variation of Nymphaea (Nymphaeaceae) in European Russia
Polina A. Volkova, Alexey Shipunov (2007) · Nordic Journal of Botany

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Nymphaea 7 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 133 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.