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 nine genera with about 70 known species. Water lilies are rooted in soil in bodies of water, with

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

and flowers floating on or emergent from the surface. Leaves are round, with a radial notch in ''

Nymphaea ''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 introduc ...

'' and '' Nuphar'', but fully circular in '' Victoria'' and '' Euryale''. Water lilies are a well-studied

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

of plants because their large flowers with multiple unspecialized parts were initially considered to represent the floral pattern of the earliest flowering plants, and later genetic studies confirmed their evolutionary position as basal angiosperms. Analyses of floral morphology and molecular characteristics and comparisons with a sister taxon, the family Cabombaceae, indicate, however, that the flowers of extant water lilies with the most floral parts are more derived than the genera with fewer floral parts. Genera with more floral parts, ''Nuphar'', ''Nymphaea'', ''Victoria'', have a beetle pollination syndrome, while genera with fewer parts are pollinated by flies or

bees Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamil ...

, or are self- or wind-pollinated.Phylogeny, Classification and Floral Evolution of Water Lilies (Nymphaeaceae; Nymphaeales): A Synthesis of Non-molecular, rbcL, matK, and 18S rDNA Data, Donald H. Les, Edward L. Schneider, Donald J. Padgett, Pamela S. Soltis, Douglas E. Soltis and Michael Zanis, Systematic Botany, Vol. 24, No. 1, 1999, pp. 28-46 Thus, the large number of relatively unspecialized floral organs in the Nymphaeaceae is not an ancestral condition for the clade.

Description

The Nymphaeaceae are aquatic, rhizomatous herbs. The family is further characterized by scattered vascular bundles in the stems, and frequent presence of latex, usually with distinct, stellate-branched sclereids projecting into the air canals. Hairs are simple, usually producing mucilage (slime). Leaves are alternate and spiral, opposite or occasionally whorled, simple, peltate or nearly so, entire to toothed or dissected, short to long Petiole (botany), petiolate, with blade submerged, floating or emergent, with palmate to pinnate venation. Stipules are either present or absent. Surface leaves are absent during winter, and therefore the gases in the rhizome lacunae access equilibrium with the gases of the sediment water. The leftover of internal pressure is embodied by the constant streams of bubbles that outbreak when rising leaves are ruptured in the spring.

Flowers

Flowers are solitary, bisexual, radial, with a long pedicel and usually floating or raised above the surface of the water, with girdling vascular bundles in Receptacle (botany), receptacle. Some species are protogynous and primarily cross-pollinated, but because male and female stages overlap during the second day of flowering, and because it is self-compatible, self-fertilization is possible. Female and male parts of the flower are usually active at different times, to facilitate cross-pollination, although this is just one of several reproductive strategies used by these plants. There are 4–12 sepals, which are distinct to Connation, connate, imbricate, and often petallike. Petals lacking or 8 to numerous, inconspicuous to showy, often intergrading with stamens. Stamens are 3 to numerous, the innermost sometimes represented by staminodes. Filament (botany), Filaments are distinct, free or Adnation, adnate to petaloid staminodes, slender and well differentiated from anthers to leaf shape, laminar and poorly differentiated from anthers; pollen grains usually monosulcate or lacking apertures. Carpels are 3 to numerous, distinct or connate.

Fruit

The fruit is an aggregate of nuts, a berry, or an irregularly dehiscent fleshy spongy capsule. Seeds are often arillate, more or less lacking endosperm.

Taxonomy

Nymphaeaceae has been investigated systematically for decades because botanists considered their floral morphology to represent one of the earliest groups of angiosperms. Modern genetic analyses by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group researchers has confirmed its Basal (phylogenetics), basal position among flowering plants. In addition, the Nymphaeaceae are more genetically diverse and geographically dispersed than other basal angiosperms. Nymphaeaceae is placed in the order Nymphaeales, which is the second diverging group of angiosperms after ''Amborella'' in the most widely accepted flowering plant classification system, APG IV system. Nymphaeaceae is a small family of three to six genera: ''Barclaya'', '' Euryale'', '' Nuphar'', ''

'', ''Ondinea'', and '' Victoria''. 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 and by stamens that are joined in the base. However, molecular phylogenetic work includes it in Nymphaeaceae. The genus ''Ondinea'' has recently been shown to be a morphologically aberrant species of ''Nymphaea'', and is now included in this genus. The genera ''Euryale'', of far east Asia, and ''Victoria'', from South America, are closely related despite their geographic distance, but their relationship toward ''Nymphaea'' need further studies. The Nelumbo nucifera, sacred lotus was once thought to be a water lily, but is now recognized to be a highly modified eudicot in its own family Nelumbonaceae of the order Proteales.

Fossils

Several fossil species are known, including Cretaceous representatives of ''Nymphaea'', as well as fossil genera such as ''Jaguariba'' from the Cretaceous of Brazil and ''Notonuphar'' from the Eocene of Antarctica.

As an invasive species

The beautiful nature of water lilies has led to their widespread use as ornamental plants. The Mexican waterlily, native to the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf Coast of North America, is planted throughout the continent. It has escaped from cultivation and become invasive in some areas, such as California's San Joaquin Valley. 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 and fluridone.

Culture

The Nymphaea nouchali, water lily is the National emblem, national flower of Iran, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The Emblem of Bangladesh contains a lily floating on water. It is also the birth flower for the month of July. The Nymphaeaceae, which is also called (Nilufar Abi in Persian), can be seen in many reliefs of the Achaemenid period (552 BC) such as the statue of Anahita in the Persepolis. Lotus flower was included in Kaveh the blacksmith's Derafsh and later as the flag of the Sasanian Empire Derafsh Kaviani. Today, it is known as the symbol of Iranians Solar Hijri Calendar. Lily pads, also known as ''Seeblatt, Seeblätter'', are a charge in Northern European heraldry, often coloured red (gules), and appear on the flag of Friesland and the coat of arms of Denmark (in the latter case often replaced by red Heart symbol, hearts). The water lily has a special place in Sangam literature and Tamil poetics, where it is considered symbolic of the grief of separation; it is considered to evoke imagery of the sunset, the seashore, and the shark.

In visual arts

Water lilies were depicted by the List of French artists, French artist Claude Monet (1840–1926) in a Water Lilies, series of paintings.

Gallery

File:Lilypad.jpg, Lily pads floating in a lake in Toronto, Canada File:Matkusjoki 20210709 142526.jpg, Lily pads floating on Matkusjoki River in Iisalmi, Finland File:Water Lily Sambalpur.jpg, Water lily at Sambalpur File:Claude Monet 038.jpg, ''Water Lilies,'' 1920-1926, Musée de l'Orangerie File:Nuphar pumilum (4) 1200.jpg, ''Nuphar pumilum'' 2014 in China File:Water lily opening bloom 20fps.ogv, Time-lapse video of a water lily blooming File:Nymphaea caerulea 01.jpg, Water lily blooming in Sankarpur of West Bengal File:Blue-Lotus.jpg, Blue water lily of Bangladesh File:Henllys Water Lilies.jpg, Yellow water lilies in Wales, 2021 File:Water lilies in Nairobi, Kenya.jpg, Water lilies in Nairobi, Kenya

References

External links

Nymphaeaceae of Mongolia in FloraGREIF
{{Authority control Nymphaeaceae, Angiosperm families Aquatic plants Extant Early Cretaceous first appearances