Water Lily

Where it grows

White water lilies grow in still or slow-moving fresh water across Europe, North Africa, and western Asia, anchored in the silt of pond bottoms by long, fleshy rhizomes. Tropical Nymphaea species occupy the same niche from the Amazon to the Nile; the giant Victoria water lily of the Amazon basin produces dinner-plate-sized blooms.

How to recognise it

Glossy round leaves up to thirty centimetres across float flat on the water surface, attached by long stalks rooted in the bottom. The cup-shaped flowers float beside them, with twenty or more pointed tepals graduating from outer green to inner white, pink, or yellow, surrounding a dense boss of yellow stamens. They open at dawn and close in late afternoon.

Garden & cultural uses

Water-lily breeder Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac of southwestern France produced the first hardy coloured cultivars in the 1880s; he supplied the plants Claude Monet grew in his Giverny pond and painted in over two hundred and fifty canvases of Nympheas. The lily forms still serve as the standard for garden water gardens worldwide.

In symbolism

In ancient Egypt the blue lotus (N. caerulea) was associated with rebirth and sleep; its mild psychoactive properties may explain its constant appearance in tomb decoration.