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Nymphaeaceae is a name for a family of flowering plant
Flowering plant

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of Embryophytes. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms are the only extant groups of Spermatophyte....
s. Members of this family are commonly called water lilies and live in freshwater areas in temperate and tropical climates
Tropics

The Tropics, seated in the equatorial regions of the world, are limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately 23?26' N latitude, and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at 23?26' S latitude....
 around the world. The family contains 8 genera. There are about 70 species of water lilies around the world. The genus Nymphaea contains about 35 species across the Northern Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere

The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of the equator?the word sphere literally means 'half sphere'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator....
. The genus Victoria contains two species of giant water lilies and can be found in South America.






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Nymphaeaceae is a name for a family of flowering plant
Flowering plant

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of Embryophytes. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms are the only extant groups of Spermatophyte....
s. Members of this family are commonly called water lilies and live in freshwater areas in temperate and tropical climates
Tropics

The Tropics, seated in the equatorial regions of the world, are limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately 23?26' N latitude, and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at 23?26' S latitude....
 around the world. The family contains 8 genera. There are about 70 species of water lilies around the world. The genus Nymphaea contains about 35 species across the Northern Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere

The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of the equator?the word sphere literally means 'half sphere'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator....
. The genus Victoria contains two species of giant water lilies and can be found in South America. Water lilies are rooted in soil
Soil

Soil is the naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose covering on the Earth's surface. Soil is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes including weathering and erosion....
 in bodies of water, with leaves
Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
 and flower
Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s floating on the water surface. The leaves are round, with a radial notch in Nymphaea
Nymphaea

Nymphaea is a genus of aquatic plants in the family Nymphaeaceae. There are about 50 species in the genus, which has a cosmopolitan distribution....
 and Nuphar
Nuphar

Nuphar is genus of aquatic plants in the family Nymphaeaceae, with a temperate Northern Hemisphere distribution. The common name, shared with some other genera in the same family, is water lily or waterlily....
, but fully circular in Victoria
Victoria (waterlily)

Victoria is the genus of giant water lilies in the plant family Nymphaeaceae. The species of this classification have very large leaves that float on the water's surface, the most well known and largest, Victoria amazonica, has a leaf that is up to 3 m in diameter on a stalk 7?8 m in length....
.

Water lilies are divided into two main categories: hardy and tropical. Hardy water lilies bloom only during the day, but tropical water lilies can bloom either during the day or at night, and are the only group to contain blue-flowered plants.

Water lilies can be fragrant, such as Nymphaea odorata
Nymphaea odorata

Nymphaea odorata, also known as the Fragrant Water Lily and Beaver Root, is a flower belonging to the genus Nymphaea. It can be found throughout North America....
.

Classification

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
Ovary

The ovary is an ovum-producing reproductive organ, often found in pairs as part of the vertebrate female reproductive system. Ovaries in females are homology to testicle in males, in that they are both gonads and endocrine glands....
 and by stamens that are joined basally. But recent work lends weight to placing it in the Nymphaeaceae.

In the past Nymphaeaceae often have been treated to include Cabombaceae
Cabombaceae

Cabombaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants. The family has been recognised by at least some taxonomists. The family consists of two genera of aquatic plants, , totalling half-a-dozen species....
 but this is often treated as a separate family in the same order (Nymphaeales
Nymphaeales

Nymphaeales is a botanical name at the rank of order . When recognized, it includes Nymphaeaceae and sometimes other aquatic plants. This order is not part of the APG II system 2003 plant classification , which instead has a broadly circumscribed family Nymphaeaceae unplaced in any order....
). The sacred lotus
Nelumbo nucifera

Nelumbo nucifera, known by a number of names including Indian lotus, sacred lotus, bean of India, or simply lotus. Botanically, Nelumbo nucifera may also be referred to by its Synonym , Nelumbium speciosum or Nymphaea nelumbo. This plant is an aquatic perennial....
 family Nelumbonaceae was once thought to be a water lily, but is now recognized to be a highly modified eudicot in the order Proteales
Proteales

Proteales is the botanical name of an order of flowering plants. Such an order has been recognized by almost all taxonomists....
. The order Nymphaeales is a lineage separate from monocots or eudicots.

The current phylogenetic placement is:

As Invasive Species

The beautiful nature of water lilies has led to their widespread use as ornamental plants. The Mexican water lily
Nymphaea mexicana

The aquatic plant Nymphaea mexicana is known by the common names yellow waterlily, Mexican waterlily and banana waterlily....
, native to the gulf coast
Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of water in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is an oceanic basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba....
 of North America, is planted throughout the continent. It has escaped from cultivation and become invasive in some areas, such as California's
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
 San Joaquin Valley
San Joaquin Valley

The San Joaquin Valley refers to the area of the California Central Valley of California that lies south of the Sacramento River Delta in Stockton, California....
. 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
Glyphosate

Glyphosate is a non-selective systemic herbicide, absorbed through the leaves, injected into the Trunk , or applied to the stump of a tree, used to kill weeds, especially Perennial plants and broadcast or used in the cut-stump treatment as a forestry herbicide....
 and fluridone .

Symbolism

The white water lily
White waterlily

White waterlily can mean:* Nymphaea alba, of Europe and North Africa* Nymphaea lotus, of East Africa and Southeast Asia* Nymphaea pubescens, of South Asia and Southeast Asia, and the national flower of Bangladesh...
 is the national flower
National emblem

A national emblem national symbols represents a nation. Most national emblems originate in the natural world, such as animals or birds, but another object may serve....
 of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India....
 &Bangladesh
Bangladesh

, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south....
. It is also the birth flower for July.

In Visual Arts

Water lilies were depicted by the French artist
List of French artists

The following is a chronological list of French artists working in visual or plastic media . For alphabetical lists, see the various subcategories of :Category:French artists....
 Claude Monet
Claude Monet

Claude Monet also known as Oscar-Claude Monet or Claude Oscar Monet was a founder of French impressionism painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting....
 in a series of paintings
Water Lilies

Water Lilies is a series of approximately 250 oil paintings by French Impressionism Claude Monet . The paintings depict Monet's flower garden at Giverny and were the main focus of Monet's artistic production during the last thirty years of his life....
.

Gallery


See also

  • Nelumbo
    Nelumbo

    Nelumbo is a genus of aquatic plants with large, showy, water lily-like flowers commonly known as lotus or sacred lotus. The generic name is derived from the Sinhalese language word Nelum....
  • Pond
    Pond

    A pond is a body of water smaller than a lake, both being examples of terrain feature. Although the term pond is universally used to describe waterbodies that are smaller than lakes, an internationally recognised size cutoff has not yet been agreed, with values ranging from 2 hectares to 8 hectares used to distinguish the smaller from...
  • Pamplemousses Botanical Garden
    Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden

    The Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden , commonly known as the Pamplemousses Botanical Garden, is a popular tourist attraction near Port Louis, Mauritius, and the oldest botanical garden in the Southern Hemisphere....
    , famous for its giant water lilies


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