Yellow Waterlily

Description:

The flower is solitary, terminal, held above the water surface; it is hermaphrodite, with five or six large bright yellow sepals and numerous small yellow petals largely concealed by the sepals. This aquatic plant grows with its roots in the sediment and its leaves floating on the water surface.Since the flooded soils are deficient in oxygen, aerenchyma in the leaves and rhizome transport oxygen to the rhizome (from the young leaves into the rhizome, and out through the older leaves) Pollination is entomophilous, by flies attracted to the alcoholic scent.

Habitat:

shallow water, wetlands and often beaver ponds.

Notes:

@ Myakka River. Native to temperate regions of Europe, northwest Africa, and western Asia. The species is less tolerant of water pollution than water-lilies in the genus Nymphaea.