Nymphaea minuta is a fossil species in the family Nymphaeaceae from the Aquitanian of Manosque, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France.Nymphaea minuta Saporta (n.d.). The International Fossil Plant Names Index (IFPNI). Retrieved March 3, 2025, from https://www.ifpni.org/species.htm?id=6E794BA7-C653-9076-B1BB-01DDE9A63AF1 It is known from a leaf fossil.Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences. p. 889. (1894). Frankreich: Gauthier-Villars.
Description The minute, petiolate, ovate to cordate leaf has an entire margin and an obtuse apex. The leaf base is cordate, and the basal lobes are slightly diverging. The petiole is thin.de Saporta, G. (1891). Recherches sur la végétation du niveau aquitanien de Manosque. pp. 13–14. Librairie polytechnique.
Taxonomy It was first validly published by Gaston de Saporta in 1891, after it had invalidly been described by Saporta one year before.Nymphaea minuta Saporta (n.d.). The International Fossil Plant Names Index (IFPNI). Retrieved March 3, 2025, from https://www.ifpni.org/species.htm?id=544C4209-54C6-C0DB-532A-A0B07895A411 It has been described as very similar to Nymphaea pygmaea and Nymphaea tetragona.Conard, Henry S. (1905). The waterlilies: a monograph of the genus Nymphaea (p. 216). Pub. by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35045097Revue générale de botanique. p. 191. (1890). Frankreich: Libraire générale de le̓nseignement. Saporta suggested Nymphaea minuta may represent an ancestral species of Nymphaea pygmaea. Etymology The specific epithet minuta from the Latin minutus means very small.Maarten H.J. van der Meer (2022 Oct 10). Maihueniopsis minuta. Dictionary of Cactus Names. Retrieved March 4, 2025, from https://www.cactusnames.org/maihueniopsis-minuta Homonyms It has several homonyms: Nymphaea minuta was published by Vadim Petrovich Nikitin in 1964Nymphaea minuta V.P. Nikitin (n.d.). The International Fossil Plant Names Index (IFPNI). Retrieved March 3, 2025, from https://www.ifpni.org/species.htm?id=43441A35-08BD-B3B1-ABD4-8CEA23D2EC64 and then again in 2007.Nymphaea minuta V.P. Nikitin (n.d.). The International Fossil Plant Names Index (IFPNI). Retrieved March 3, 2025, from https://www.ifpni.org/species.htm?id=8808C3FC-32A2-406D-A6DA-CFBA8CF7BD77 The correct name is Nymphaea nikitinii published by Alexander Borisovitch Doweld in 2022.Doweld A.B. 2022. New names of fossil Nymphaeaceae and allied forms. Geophytology 52(1&2): 1–28.Nymphaea nikitinii Doweld (n.d.). The International Fossil Plant Names Index (IFPNI). Retrieved March 3, 2025, from https://www.ifpni.org/species.htm?id=6D06C024-4DAF-A6E9-482F-8E3793C0A8A1 Nymphaea minuta was published by Kenneth C. Landon, Richard A. Edwards, and P. Ivan Nozaic in 2006.Landon, K., Edwards, R. A., & Nozaic, P. I. (2006). A new species of waterlily (Nymphaea minuta: Nymphaeaceae) from Madagascar. SIDA, Contributions to Botany, 887-893. The corrected name is Nymphaea dimorpha published by Ian Mark Turner in 2014.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.
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