Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
Nymphaeaceae - The Water Lily Family
Aquatic perennials with large floating and often some emersed leaves; stem a thick, fleshy, submerged rhizome anchored in the substrate, the older portions decaying behind the growing apex. Leaves arranged in a close spiral on the rhizome, subpeltate, the blades large and leathery, oblong to oval or rotund in outline but with a sinus behind the petiole attachment to the blade; smaller, thin textured submersed leaves sometimes present, especially early in the growing season; petioles elongate, stout and tough. Flowers solitary on long peduncles, borne at or above the water surface, white or yellow, 4-20 cm across, perfect, regular, hypogynous to nearly epigynous; sepals 4-6, quite petaloid, green or greenish on the outside, white or yellow on the inside, when yellow usually reddish toward the base; petals numerous, either white, large and showy, or yellow, small and inconspicuous, spirally arranged, gradually passing into the stamens; stamens numerous, with flattened and often broadened filaments; carpels several to many, fused into a compound ovary, stigmas radiating from the center of the disklike summit of the ovary. Fruit fleshy and leathery, many-seeded, eventually breaking open under water.
| Lead | Characteristic | Go To |
| 1 | Flowers yellow; leaf blades oblong to oval or subsagittate. | Genus Nuphar |
| 1 | Flowers white; leaf blades rotund or nearly so. | Genus Nymphaea |
- 1. Nymphaea odorata Ait. -- Fragrant
white water lily
- 2. Nymphaea tuberosa Paine -- White water lily
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