Flora of New Zealand Series

mexican water lily

Aquatic herb. Rhizome erect, stout, bearing submerged narrowly hastate lvs; brood-bodies present, resembling tiny hands of bananas. Mature lvs suborbicular to elliptic with deep narrow basal sinus, entire to crenulate, glabrous, brown-blotched, 10-20-(25) × 10-20-(25) cm; basal lobes ± overlapping. Sepals 4, narrowly lanceolate, acute, yellow above, greenish beneath, obscurely veined, decaying after flowering, (45)-70-90 × 10-15 mm. Petals yellow, veined, c. 60 × (3)-8-10 mm. Filaments of innermost stamens 0.6-1 mm wide. Stigma flat; rays c. 8-10. Seeds 2-3 mm long.

N.: Waikato, known only from Lake Ohakuri.

Mexico and southern U.S.A. 1982