 The thermal waters have been recorded as early as 1211, but it was only in 1799 that the first record of "N. lotus" was made, by Pál Kitaibel.Janos Tuzson proposed in 1907 that this population's unusual location could be explained by the persistent heat provided by the thermal springs could have sustained the population at a pre-ice age time when the plant would have been spreading across the warmer regions of Europe; this theory was corroborated by additional evidence provided by the identification of other endemic species.Alexandru Borza was the Government minister in charge of education (and also a botanist) who made the first push for legal protection and recognition of "Nymphaea lotus" f. "thermalis" – in 1932, the Cabinet of Romania declared the rivulet a nature reserve and the plant a "national monument".