Large Yellow Pond, or Water, Lily; Cow Lily; Spatterdock
Nymphaea advena (Nuphar advena)
Flowers–Yellow or greenish outside, rarely purple tinged, round, depressed, 1-1/2 to 3-1/2 in. across. Sepals 6, unequal, concave, thick, fleshy; petals stamen-like, oblong, fleshy, short; stamens very numerous, in 5 to 7 rows; pistil compounded of many carpels, its stigmatic disc pale red or yellow, with 12 to 24 rays. Leaves: Floating, or some immersed, large, thick, sometimes a foot long, egg-shaped or oval, with a deep cleft at base, the lobes rounded.
Preferred Habitat–Standing water, ponds, slow streams.
Flowering Season–April-September.
Distribution–Rocky Mountains eastward, south to the Gulf of Mexico, north to Nova Scotia.
Comparisons were ever odious. Because the Yellow Water-lily has the misfortune to claim relationship with the sweet-scented white species must it never receive its just meed of praise? Hiawatha’s canoe, let it be remembered,
“Floated on the river
Like a yellow leaf in autumn,
Like a yellow water-lily.”
But even those who admire Longfellow’s lines see less beauty in the golden flower-bowls floating among the large, lustrous, leathery leaves.
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