Ledingham Herbarium Receives Rare Canadian Water Lily

The Ledingham Herbarium has recently acquired a specimen of Nymphaea loriana (Lori’s Water-lily) from the United States National Herbarium, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution. Collected on 15 August 2025 from the southwest corner of Leaf Lake in Saskatchewan, northeast of Hudson Bay, the specimen was gathered by John Wiersema and colleagues. Nymphaea loriana is a species endemic to a small portion of eastern Saskatchewan and western  Manitoba, and is among the country’s rarest plants with an estimated total population of only about 750 individuals. The species was named in memory of Dr. Wiersema’s wife. Known from only a few locations in northern and central Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Lori’s water lily may be threatened by water pollution, habitat disturbance, and changing water levels associated with climate change. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies this species as "endangered". Further information about N. loriana can be found in this article published in The Canadian Field-Naturalist.