Nymphaea / Water Lilies Family Tree

Introduction to Water Lilies Family Tree

 So here I am again, I hope you guys waited for my 2^nd blog, I always wanted to have a personal front to front communication, that makes it easy and understandable for everyone, making this work in writing is so much of a discipline and grammars. I apologise if I make some mistake & you need to bear me on this, I am never been on this much before but hopefully this will be a good learning for me. Without wasting any of your time let’s start on the topic.

Our topic today will contain the “Family Tree” of Water Lilies and this information will be helpful for us to know and understand that when we see a water lily this will fall into a sub-genus, and then there could be too many hybrids and species falls on a particular sub-genus, when we go on details and learn more we will gradually able to identify and pick which are from which sub-genus and the potential it will have in that and how to differentiate them from other. Remember that in today’s world of hybridization which is at its peak we may have many different hybrids in a particular sub-genus and I don’t feel you need to remember name of each of those to be smart in water lilies. Just remember the names of few species you are looking at and remember the sub-genus from where they come from. It’s all about your basics and how well you are in that.

Water lilies has a botanical name of Nymphaeaceae, they grow in water and roots in mud. They are very easy to grow at least when you know and understand their basic needs. "Nymphaeaceae", has a family tree so in order to understand them we need to look are all water lilies are same or there are some differences, we have many sub-genus under Nymphaeaceae and each sub-genus holds too many varieties in itself. From early 1900 we had many hybrids within a single sub-genus and with growing hybridizing we have not just having thousands of hybrids within an each sub-genus but we have many Inter-sub generic cross which is a cross from 2 different sub-genus. Below is the family tree. 

Water lily Family Tree (Sub-Genus):-

 

 

 

·        Nuphar

·        Barclaya

·        Ondinea

·        Euryale

·        Victoria

·        Anecphya (Australian Tropical's)

·        Nymphaea (Hardies)

·        Lotos (Night Blooming Tropical's)

·        Brachyceras (Day Blooming Tropical's)

·        Hydrocallis (Night Blooming Tropical's)

·      Nuphar:- Nuphar Lutea is one of the species from Nuphar Sub-genus, it is basically from a temperate climate, Nuphar Lutea found to be growing in slow moving water and in pond with depth up to 5 meter deep. They have a tendency to spread a lot and invasive. Nuphar can be grown successfully in tropical and temperate climate zone, they flower like Nymphaea (Hardies), unlike other Water Lilies Nuphar can be grown in slow moving water and too deep which I mentioned above. These natural survival instincts make them a plant which is very tough to be killed. Nuphar has a Rhizome & it is considered as Perennial and best way to cultivate is to plant it from rhizome. Nuphar do make seeds and the seedpods are formed above water unlike other Water Lilies where Seedpods are formed under water but it is seeds germination of Nuphar is difficult and not many articles on it. The flower had 5 or 6 bright yellow sepals. Refer pictures of Nuphar Aduena from Nuphar Sub-genus

• Barclaya: - B. Longifolia is a member of the Nymphaeaceae. Barclaya Longifolia comes in both red and green leaves. The leaves are long and slender, it does make tiny tuber and it is popular in aquatic market as Aquarium plant. It has mostly submerged leaves but may have occasional floating leaves; the flower appears to come in surface and very small. It is a day bloomer.

• Ondinea: - Nymphaea Ondinea is a small member of the Water lily family Nymphaeaceae, that found to grow in shallow Creek of Kimberley region of Australia. It forms small bulbs about 2.5 cm long, leaves are about 24 cm long, mostly submerged but have occasional floating leaves. It is a day bloomer. It is hardly much in cultivation or with hobbyist and has less details available

• Euryale: - Euryale Ferox is the only species in sub-genus Euryale. It could be considered as perennial as plants do not die and can survive for many seasons but as they do not tend to make any bulbs or rhizome, if they die due to unfavourable circumstances they need to be grown back from seeds. It is closely associated with Victoria and considered as cousin. Each leaf of Euryale can grow more than a meter across. The leaves have quilted texture, the stems, flowers, leaves both sides are covered with sharp prickles. They can successfully be grown in a small space too; they will limit themselves with smaller leaves and small blooms. Euryale are easiest to grow from seeds and germination success is very high, they are also more cold tolerant than there Cousin Victoria. You can store seeds in refrigerator at a temperature of 7 degree Celsius to prevent sprouting when germination is desire you may place them in room temperature which is higher than 15 degree Celsius and it should start sprouting. Euryale is a day bloomer and flower are smaller comparatively of its leaves size. Refer pictures of Euryale Ferox from sub-genus “Euryale” 

  

·        “Victoria”:- There are 2 species “Victoria Amazonica” & “Victoria Cruziana” in this sub-genus of Victoria. There are few hybrids created by crossing Amazonica & Cruziana. Victoria’s are night bloomers and perennial but like its cousin Euryale they do not form bulbs or rhizome so in case if they die out of unfavourable climate they need to be grown back from seeds. Each leaf of Victoria Amazonica can grow up to 3 meters long & Victoria Cruziana 2 meters long. The flowers are white on the first night and open pink on 2^nd night for both of Amazonica & Cruziana. The flower last only 2 days. Victoria Amazonica & Cruziana both tend to have an upward rim on leaves though Cruziana has better formed upward rims which look great. Refer Pictures of Victoria Amazonica from Sub-genus Victoria

• “Anecphya” (Australian Tropical’s):- Australian Tropical’s are day bloomer and perennial, they make bulbs from which you can propagate similar variety. They are cold sensitive and don’t like more temperature change. They love warm climate & sun. They will grow best if you give them surface water warm and bottom water cold. They can be grown best in a deep pond of 2-3 feet. This are not suitable for container garden and flower last 4-5 days, because of their sensitive nature they are not highly cultivated and many hobbyist finds hard to grow them especially those from a temperate region but when it is grown, the flower is rewarding and awesome. My favourites. Refer pictures of Neorosea from sub-genus “Anecphya”

• “Nymphaea” (Hardies):- Nymphaea (Hardies) are day bloomer, they make rhizomes through which they multiple and so perennial. Flower of Nymphaea last 4 days and they are fairly easy to grow but they flower less then tropical plants. They can handle cold well and in severe winter you can be sure they will be pretending dead in pond but once temperature goes warm they will again come and thrive. They can be propagated through seeds and rhizome but to get same plants from hybrids you need to grow them through rhizome. You may propagate species hardies from seeds to get identical plant but hybrids will don’t give you similar results. There is Viviparous trait from flower in Nymphaea Sub-genus and these traits do pass through hybridizing from parent to offspring using a viviparous parent. Refer pictures of Tetragona from sub-genus “Nymphaea”

• “Lotos” (Night Blooming Tropical’s):- Night blooming Tropical's are similar in nature like day blooming Tropical's. There flowers open in evening and stays open till morning & on cloudy whether flowers stays even open up to afternoon. Flower last for 4 days and they are perennial and can be cultivated from both seeds and tubers. To get identical plants growing from tuber is preferred. They are mostly in shade of pink and White. You will never see a yellow or blue night bloomers. They multiple a lot and gets crowded easily. Refer pictures of Rubra from sub-genus “Lotos”

•  “Brachyceras” (Day Blooming Tropical’s):- Brachyceras sub-genus Water lilies are day blooming. Flower usually stays for 3-4 days and they come in almost all colours. They are perennials and form bulbs so you can propagate them from seeds, tuber or division of plants, only true breeder species comes true from seeds otherwise you need to propagate through division of main plant or from tuber to get same plant. There are Viviparous water lilies in Brachyceras group which have viviparous trait from leaves. Refer below pictures of Ampla from sub-genus “Brachyceras”

 

• “Hydrocallis”  (Night Blooming Tropical’s):- Water Lilies from Hydrocallis Sub-genus are night blooming tropical’s. They bloom for a very short time and usually close around 2 AM so many people do not find them interesting as they cannot see the bloom. Some of the Hydrocallis water lilies are having Viviparous trait from Flower. Hydrocallis are usually white flowering water lilies with pad ranges from green to dark maroon. Not much hybrids have been created in Hydrocallis due to their very short blooming time hence this are very rare to find even with hobbyist. Refer picture of Amazonum from “Hydrocallis” sub-genus

The above are the pictures of one of the water lilies from that particular Sub-Genus. There are plenty other water lilies which are also falls on a particular sub-genus and for that we need in-depth knowledge which can only be gain with time and more learning. I hope at least some of my friends who took time to read this can understand what the family structure of Water lilies are and have a basic idea. It’s time to end my blog, I hope to keep this momentum going and capture as much information which could be helpful one and for all. Keep your comment open for suggestions, please like and share