Yellow Pond-Lily

Water Lily Family (Nymphaeaceae). Yellow pond-lily is an aquatic perennial that grows to be 15 to 60 cm in height and spreads 1 to 2 m on the water surface. Spongy rhizomes anchor into the muddy bottom of a water body and give rise to long, stout stems. Submerged leaves are thin and attached to the rhizomes. Floating leaves are thick, somewhat heart-shaped, wavy along the margins, have up to a 40 cm spread, and are attached to the stems. Flowers emerge on separate stem stalks. They are cup-shaped, yellow-green, with small scale-like petals and numberous stamens and stigmas hidden within the thick showy sepals. Flowers bloom from May to October, partially opening in the morning and closing at night. Spent flowers give way to seed heads that burst upon ripening, broadcasting their seeds over the water surface. Flowers and leaf stems die back to the rhizome in autumn.

Yellow pond-lily is native to the Eastern United States, Africa, Temperate Asia, the West Indies, and Europe. It is naturalized in most temperate regions of North America. It occurs in all 50 states except Hawaii. For current distribution, please consult the Plant Profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site (http://plants.usda.gov).
Habitat: Yellow pond-lily occurs in slow-moving streams, still ponds, and lakes.

Native Americans consumed the starchy rootstocks as boiled or roasted vegetables and harvested the seed for grinding into flour. There are some accounts of the root being powdered and used as a poultice.

References
Agricultural Research Center. 2004. GRIN taxonomy (http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/index, 30 July 2004). USDA, Beltsville.
Bayne, D. 2000. Aquaplant database (http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/default.htm, 30 July 2004). Texas Cooperative Extension, Texas A&M University, College Station.
Connecticut Botanical Society. 2004. Yellow pond-lily (http://www.ct-botanicalsociety.org/galleries/ nupharlute.html, 30 July 2004). New Haven.
Kemper Center for Home Gardening. 2004. Kemper web, PlantFinder (http://ridgwaydb.mobot.org/kemperweb/plantfinder/Alpha.asp, 30 July 2004). Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.
Ramey, V. and A. Murray. 2002. Aquatic Plant Information Retrieval System (APIRS) (http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/welcome.html, 30 July 2004). Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants, University of Florida, Gainesville.