Nymphaea odorata
Author: Roxanne Armstrong
Common Names for N. odorata
Sweet Water Lily (Sweet-scented Water Lily)
Water Nymph
Large White Water Lily
Higher Taxa
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophpyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Subclass: Magnoliidae
Order: Nymphaeales
Family: Nymphaeaceae
Genus: Nymphaea
Subgenus: Castalia
Species: odorata
Identification
The American White Water Lily is a perennial aquatic herb and is a member of the hardy species.
The entire herb grows to the surface of the water from a thick horizontal root-stock with no stem.
Flowers: large, white (sometimes pink), and fragrant with numerous petals; they grow on long peduncles and reach 5-9" in diameter; four elliptical sepals and the stamens are indefinite; open as the sun rises, close at night and during midday heat
Leaves: always floating and circular in shape with a little notch in the center; grow on separate petioles from long rhizomes in the mud; have a dark green smooth and shiny surface on the top of the leaves and a wine color on the bottom
Reproduction: large globular ovary; depressed; 18-24 celled
Fruit: globular fleshy body
Seeds: oblong, stipulate; remain dormant in winter
Roots: contain tannin, gallic acid, and mucilage starch, gum, resin, sugar, ammonia, tartaric acid, etc.
Geographic Distribution
Shallow water in lakes, ponds, bogs and sandy soil; southeastern United States; Delaware to Florida and Louisiana; Cuba; Mexico, and New Guiana; discovered in Aiton in 1789 (Conard, 1905)
"Native to eastern North America from Newfoundland south to and including Florida, west to northeastern Texas, Kansas, Michigan, and Indiana; also Mexico, West Indies, and the Guianas." (Slocum and Robinson, 1996)
(Also found in Clarke County and North Georgia Mountains)(Jones and Coile, Herbarium)
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