The Amazing Giant Water Lily - Victoria amazonica

 

THE AMAZING GIANT WATER LILY

VICTORIA AMAZONICA

It is a remarkable sight and every Botanist’s and Naturalist’s Delight – to see the Giant Water Lily, with its awesome 3 meter or 10 feet in diameter leaves and the enchantingly beautiful huge Creamy White Lily Flowers – 40 centimeters in size.

Currently blooming in the Lily Pond of the Mahatma Gandhi Botanical Gardens, Gandhi Krishi Vigyan Kendra (GKVK) campus of the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore is this Show Stopper – the Giant Water Lily – Botanical Name: Victoria amazonica.  

                                               The Giant Water Lily - Victoria amazonica

The lily plant was brought from the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, Botanical Survey of India, Kolkata by Dr. A N Sringeswara, Curator, Mahatma Gandhi Botanical Gardens, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore.

The Giant Water Lily:

Victoria amazonica is an ornamental plant and highly prized both for its giant leaves and for its stunningly beautiful white flowers. It is the world’s largest water lily and is the largest known member in the Nymphaeaceae family.

           

Giant Water Lily Buds                                 

The leaves of this water lily attain an average diameter of about 10 feet (3 meters) and the remarkable feature of this fascinating plant is that the leaves are attached to underwater stalks as long as 26 feet (8 meters) in length.

                   

The surprisingly gorgeous blooms of the awesome Victoria amazonica are a botanist’s delight; these blossoms typically reach a diameter of about 40 Centimeters or 16 Inches and appear as white on their first day, then change to deep pink afterwards. The flowers begin to open as the sun starts to set and can take up to 48 hours to fully open.

                                       The Flower - Giant Water Lily - Victoria amazonica

The fragrant flower of Giant water lily only blooms for few days. The first night, the flowers are creamy white color.

Pollination mechanism:

 Due to the thermochemical reaction happening in flower, it gives off heat. The flower’s pineapple and butterscotch scent as well as heat attract native pollinating beetles, such as the scarab beetle of the genus CYCLOCEPHALA. By evening, the flower closes itself and beetle spends one night inside the flower, covering itself in the flower’s pollen. The second day, the flower reopens, turned into beautiful pinkish color. Beetle then flies off to some other Water lily flower carrying the essential pollen to ensure cross-fertilization. This process keeps Giant water lily species alive.

It was originally named Victoria regia and was described by Tadeáš Haenke in 1801, it was first discovered in Bolivia and is indigenous to the Amazon River basin’s shallow waters. It was subsequently names Victoria amazonica.

                                                    The Stunning Giant Water Lily

The common names for the water lily include Amazon water lily, Victoria-lily, or Giant water lily.

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