Nymphaea tetragonaGeorgi

pygmy water-lilypygmy waterlily

WFO wfo-0000380763 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Nymphaea tetragona, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. a Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-07-18 / obs. 144578236

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
4418323
Filed as
Nymphaea tetragona Georgi
Det. by
not recorded on this sheet
Collected
R. R. Stewart 1934-07
Origin
IN
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 46 botanical countries

Regions where Nymphaea tetragona is native: Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Chita, Hainan, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Japan, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Manchuria, Mongolia, Primorye, Sakhalin, Taiwan, Tibet, Tuva, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, Assam, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Baltic States, East European Russia, Finland, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, Washington, Yukon AltayAmurBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastChitaHainanInner MongoliaIrkutskJapanKamchatkaKazakhstanKhabarovskKrasnoyarskMagadanManchuriaMongoliaPrimoryeSakhalinTaiwanTibetTuvaWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaAssamBangladeshMyanmarVietnamWest HimalayaBaltic StatesEast European RussiaFinlandNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaAlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaManitobaNorthwest TerritoriesSaskatchewanWashingtonYukon Korea
Native distribution of Nymphaea tetragona, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Chita CTA
Hainan CHH
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Japan JAP
Kamchatka KAM
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Kuril Is. KUR
Magadan MAG
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
Primorye PRM
Sakhalin SAK
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
British Columbia BRC
Manitoba MAN
Northwest Territories NWT
Saskatchewan SAS
Washington WAS
Yukon YUK
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
Myanmar MYA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
Baltic States BLT EUROPE
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW

Not drawn on the map: Kuril Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 311 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -34.0 °C -19.4 °C -0.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 17.0 °C 22.3 °C 27.5 °C
Annual rainfall 329 mm 611 mm 2,303 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 9 mm 64 mm 300 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 311 research-grade observations of Nymphaea tetragona that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 22 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Castalia crassifolia Hand.-Mazz.
  • Castalia pygmaea Salisb.
  • Castalia rudgeana Tratt.
  • Castalia tetragona (Georgi) G.Lawson
  • Leuconymphaea tetragona (Georgi) Kuntze
  • Nymphaea alba subsp. tetragona (Georgi) Korsh.
  • Nymphaea crassifolia (Hand.-Mazz.) Nakai
  • Nymphaea esquirolii H.Lév. & Vaniot
  • Nymphaea fennica Mela
  • Nymphaea japono-koreana Nakai
  • Nymphaea pygmaea (Salisb.) W.T.Aiton
  • Nymphaea pygmaea f. acutiloba Regel
  • Nymphaea pygmaea f. distans Regel
  • Nymphaea pygmaea f. grandiflora Regel
  • Nymphaea pygmaea var. acutiloba (Regel) Regel
  • Nymphaea pygmaea var. grandiflora (Regel) Regel
  • Nymphaea pygmaea var. minima Nakai
  • Nymphaea tetragona var. angusta Casp. ex Nakai
  • Nymphaea tetragona var. crassifolia (Hand.-Mazz.) Y.C.Chu
  • Nymphaea tetragona var. minima (Nakai) W.Lee
  • Nymphaea tetragona var. wenzelii (Maack) Vorosch.
  • Nymphaea wenzelii Maack ex Regel

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.