The Nymphaeales are an order of flowering plants, consisting of three families of aquatic plants, the Hydatellaceae, the Cabombaceae, and the Nymphaeaceae. It is one of the three orders of basal angiosperms, an early-diverging grade of flowering plants. At least 10 morphological characters unite the Nymphaeales. One of the traits is the absence of a vascular cambium, which is required to produce both xylem (wood) and phloem, which therefore are missing. Molecular synapomorphies are also known.
Nymphaeaceae is a family of flowering plants, commonly called water lilies. They live as rhizomatous aquatic herbs in temperate and tropical climates around the world. The family contains five genera with about 70 known species. Water lilies are rooted in soil in bodies of water, with leaves and flowers floating on or rising from the surface. Leaves are oval and heart-shaped in Barclaya. Leaves are round, with a radial notch in Nymphaea and Nuphar, but fully circular in Victoria and Euryale.
Amborella is a monotypic genus of understory shrubs or small trees endemic to the main island, Grande Terre, of New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The genus is the only member of the family Amborellaceae and the order Amborellales and contains a single species, Amborella trichopoda. Amborella is of great interest to plant systematists because molecular phylogenetic analyses consistently place it as the sister group to all other flowering plants, meaning it was the earliest group to evolve separately from all other flowering plants.
Victoria or giant waterlily is a genus of aquatic herbs in the plant family Nymphaeaceae. Its leaves have a remarkable size: Victoria boliviana produces leaves up to 3.2 metres (10 ft) in width. The genus name was given in honour of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.
Nymphaea is a genus of hardy and tender aquatic plants in the family Nymphaeaceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution. Many species are cultivated as ornamental plants, and many cultivars have been bred. Some taxa occur as introduced species where they are not native, and some are weeds. Plants of the genus are known commonly as water lilies, or waterlilies in the United Kingdom. The genus name is from the Greek νυμφαία, nymphaia and the Latin nymphaea, which means "water lily" and were inspired by the nymphs of Greek and Latin mythology.
Nelumbo is a genus of aquatic plants with large, showy flowers. Members are commonly called lotus, though the name is also applied to various other plants and plant groups, including the unrelated genus Lotus. Members outwardly resemble those in the family Nymphaeaceae, but Nelumbo is actually very distant from that family.
Victoria amazonica is a species of flowering plant, the second largest in the water lily family Nymphaeaceae. It is called Vitória-Régia or Iaupê-Jaçanã in Brazil and Atun Sisac in Inca (Quechua). Its native region is tropical South America, specifically Guyana and the Amazon Basin.
Nymphaea nouchali var. caerulea, is a water lily in the genus Nymphaea, a botanical variety of Nymphaea nouchali.
Hydatellaceae are a family of small, aquatic flowering plants. The family consists of tiny, relatively simple plants occurring in Australasia and India. It was formerly considered to be related to the grasses and sedges, but has been reassigned to the order Nymphaeales as a result of DNA and morphological analyses showing that it represents one of the earliest groups to split off in flowering-plant phylogeny, rather than having a close relationship to monocots, which it bears a superficial resemblance to due to convergent evolution. The family includes only the genus Trithuria, which has at least 13 species, although species diversity in the family has probably been substantially underestimated.
Brasenia is a genus belonging to the family Cabombaceae, consisting of one species, Brasenia schreberi, commonly known as watershield. It is widely distributed in North America, the West Indies, northern South America, eastern Asia, Australia, the Indian Subcontinent, and parts of Africa.
Charles William Brett Tricker (1852–1916) was an English-born estate gardener. He trained at Kew Gardens in London, before emigrating to the United States in the later 19th century. His interest was in aquatic plants, and he began a company, named William Tricker, that specialized in aquatic plants. The company sent out its first mail order catalog in 1892, and is still operating, as William Tricker, Inc. based in Independence, Ohio. The company currently displays Tricker's original catalog. Being a plantsman, he wrote many articles for the publication Garden and Forest in the 1890s dealing with aquatic plants. He is well known for producing many hybrid water lilies that are still known around the world. He introduced a water lily with 6-feet pads from South America, which he named Victoria trickeri, although it is now known as Victoria cruziana. He died in 1916, after which his son, Charles Tricker, took over the business.
Nymphaea mexicana is a species of aquatic plant that is native to the Southern United States and Mexico as far south as Michoacán. Common names include yellow water lily, Mexican water lily and banana water lily.
Dracunculus vulgaris is a species of aroid flowering plant in the genus Dracunculus and the arum family Araceae. Common names include the common dracunculus, dragon lily, dragon arum, black arum and vampire lily. In Greece, part of its native range, the plant is called drakondia, the long spadix being viewed as a small dragon hiding in the spathe.
The basal angiosperms are the flowering plants which diverged from the lineage leading to most flowering plants. In particular, the most basal angiosperms were called the ANITA grade, which is made up of Amborella, Nymphaeales and Austrobaileyales.
Nymphaea violacea, also known as blue lily, is a waterlily in the genus Nymphaea.
Nuphar japonica, known as East Asian yellow water-lily, is an aquatic plant species in the genus Nuphar found in Japan and the Korean Peninsula. It is endangered in Russia. The species was not accepted by The Plant List as of November 2013, which regarded it as an "unresolved name".
Euryale is a genus of flowering plants of the family Nymphaeaceae.
Victoria boliviana, or the Bolivian waterlily is a species of aquatic plant within the genus Victoria in the family Nymphaeaceae. It is the newest described species of the genus and its largest member in size and was officially identified in 2022. In January 2023, the species was awarded three Guinness World Record titles for world's largest waterlily species, world's largest waterlily leaf and world's largest undivided leaf, with the latter two specifically recognising a specimen grown in 2012 at La Rinconada Gardens in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
Nymphaea tenuinervia is a species of waterlily native to Colombia, Guyana and Brazil.
Nymphaea gracilis is a species of waterlily endemic to Mexico. It is the only species of its genus which is endemic to Mexico.
