The Queen Victoria’s Water Lily (Victoria amazonica) in the Adelaide Botanic Garden, South Australia, is a giant water lily. It is the largest of the Nymphaeaceae family of water lilies, and is native to the Amazon River in South America.
The species has very large round leaves, up to 3 metres (10 feet which is 120 inches) in diameter, that float on the water’s surface. The submerged stalk is 7–8 metres (23-26 feet) in length.
The flowers are white the first night they are open and become magenta pink on the second night. The flowers are up to 40 centimetres (16 inches) in diameter, and are pollinated by a beetle.
It flowers in July and August.
Floating with the Queen Victoria’s Water Lily in the Adelaide Botanic Garden, is the perennial Blue Nile Water Lily (Nymphaea caerulea). It is native to Egypt.
The leaves measure about 42 centimetres (17 inches) in diameter and the flowers measure 8-12 centimetres (3-5 inches) in diameter.
Its blue, white, mauve, or pinkish flowers bloom in July and August.
Photographed in the Botanical Garden, Adelaide, March 2018
Photographer: Martina Nicolls
MARTINA NICOLLS