Nymphaeaceae

The Nymphaeaceae are aquatic, rhizomatous herbs. The family is further characterized by scattered vascular bundles in the stems, and frequent presence of latex, usually with distinct, stellate-branched sclereids projecting into the air canals. Hairs are simple, usually producing mucilage (slime). Leaves are alternate and spiral, opposite or occasionally whorled, simple, peltate or nearly so, entire to toothed or dissected, short to long petiolate), with blade submerged, floating or emergent, with palmate to pinnate venation. Stipules are either present or absent. Flowers are solitary, bisexual, radial, with a long pedicel and usually floating or raised above the surface of the water, with girdling vascular bundles in receptacle. Female and male parts of the flower are active at different times usually, to facilitate cross-pollination. Sepals are 4-12, distinct to connate, imbricate, and often petal-like. Petals lacking or 8 to numerous, inconspicuous to showy, often intergrading with stamens. Stamens are 3 to numerous, the innermost sometimes represented by staminodes. Filaments are distinct, free or adnate to petaloid staminodes, slender and well differentiated from anthers to laminar and poorly differentiated from anthers; pollen grains usually monosulcate or lacking apertures. Carpels are 3 to numerous, distinct or connate. Fruit is an aggregate of nuts, a berry, or an irregularly dehiscent fleshy spongy capsule. Seeds are often arillate, more or less lacking endosperm.

Water lilies in Ontario, Canada

Nymphaeaceae has been investigated systematically for decades because botanists considered their floral morphology to represent one of the earliest groups of angiosperms.[3] Modern genetic analyses by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group researchers has confirmed its basal position among flowering plants.[1][4][5][6] In addition, the Nymphaeaceae are more genetically diverse and geographically dispersed than other basal angiosperms.[7][8] Nymphaeaceae is placed in the order Nymphaeales, which is the second diverging group of angiosperms after Amborella in the most widely accepted flowering plant classification system, APG IV system.[4][5][6]

Nymphaeaceae is a small family of three to six genera: Barclaya, Euryale, Nuphar, Nymphaea, Ondinea, and Victoria. The genus Barclaya is sometimes given rank as its own family, Barclayaceae, on the basis of an extended perianth tube (combined sepals and petals) arising from the top of the ovary and by stamens that are joined in the base. However, molecular phylogenetic work includes it in Nymphaeaceae.[9] The genus Ondinea has recently been shown to be a morphologically aberrant species of Nymphaea, and is now included in this genus.[10] The genera Euryale, of far east Asia, and Victoria, from South America, are closely related despite their geographic distance, but their relationship toward Nymphaea need further studies.[11][12][13]

The sacred lotus was once thought to be a water lily, but is now recognized to be a highly modified eudicot in its own family Nelumbonaceae of the order Proteales.

The beautiful nature of water lilies has led to their widespread use as ornamental plants. The Mexican water lily, native to the Gulf Coast of North America, is planted throughout the continent. It has escaped from cultivation and become invasive in some areas, such as California's San Joaquin Valley. It can infest slow-moving bodies of water and is difficult to eradicate. Populations can be controlled by cutting top growth. Herbicides can also be used to control populations using glyphosate and fluridone.[14]

The white water lily is the national flower of Bangladesh and the state flower for Andhra Pradesh, India. The Emblem of Bangladesh contains a lily floating on water. The blue waterlily is the national flower of Sri Lanka. It is also the birth flower for Pisces.

Lily pads, also known as Seeblätter, are a charge in Northern European heraldry, often coloured red (gules), and appear on the flag of Friesland and the coat of arms of Denmark (in the latter case often replaced by red hearts).

The water lily has a special place in Sangam literature and Tamil poetics, where it is considered symbolic of the grief of separation; it is considered to evoke imagery of the sunset, the seashore, and the shark.

Water lilies were depicted by the French artist Claude Monet (1840–1926) in a series of paintings.

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  Lily pads floating in a lake in Toronto, Canada
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  Water lily at Sambalpur
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  Water Lilies, 1920-1926, Musée de l'Orangerie
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  Nuphar pumilum 2014 in China
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  Water lily blooming in Sankarpur of West Bengal
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  Blue water lily of Bangladesh

• Nelumbo
• Pamplemousses Botanical Garden, famous for its giant water lilies
• List of plants known as lily

• The genera of the Nymphaeaceae and Ceratophyllaceae in the southeastern United States. J. Arnold Arbor. 40: 94-112.
• Perry D. Slocum: Waterlilies and Lotuses. Timber Press 2005, ISBN 0-88192-684-1 (restricted online version at Google Books)
• Thomas Borsch, Cornelia Löhne, Mame Samba Mbaye, and John H. Wiersema. 2011. Towards a complete species tree of Nymphaea: shedding further light on subg. Brachyceras and its relationships to the Australian water-lilies. Telopea 13(1-2): 193-217.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nymphaeaceae.

Wikispecies has information related to Nymphaeaceae.

• Nymphaeaceae of Mongolia in FloraGREIF