Hello! Hello! Hello! Welcome to Tiniestlily. This part of the internet is dedicated to a hodgepodge collection of interests that no longer have space in my head. They must be shared! Think of it as a pensive à la Dumbledore, but public and not mysterious at all.

Nymphaea thermarum at the Kew Botanical cardens. Image source: John-Paul Flavell.

So, do you know what the tiniest water lily in the world is? It is Nymphaea thermarum, a tiny little thing from Rwanda, that is now extinct from the wild. It has a fascinating history, a part which includes possibly being traded on the black market (I had no idea there was a cutthroat market for plants). In any case, much like me, N. thermarum probably never expected to leave Rwanda and find itself travelling the world; first to survive, then to thrive. And yet here we both are, in our respective corners of the world, discovering the previously unknown…and unimagined! Currently, I call Namibia home, but the itch to see more is always there. And slowly but surely, I am trying to satisfy it.

However, this space is actually dedicated to someone else who was truly the tiniest lily in every sense. Small. Rare. Fascinating. And sadly, no longer here. Nevertheless, their memory continues to inspire the content of this blog. And I hope you will be able to keep up  with (and indeed, enjoy) the twists and turns of the journey.

Best,

TL