WATER LILY
Nymphaea — Water Lily family (Nymphaeaceae)
DESCRIPTION
The Blue Waterlily is a beautiful native aquatic plant found across northern Australia. Its large flowers rise above the water and can range from pale blue and lavender to deeper purple, with a striking yellow centre. Broad, round leaves float on the water's surface.
WHERE IT LIVES
It grows in freshwater wetlands, including billabongs, lagoons, swamps and seasonally flooded areas. In Kakadu, waterlilies are a familiar part of the vast floodplains and billabongs that fill during the wet season and gradually shrink as the country dries.
WHAT IT EATS
A water lily doesn't eat like an animal. It makes its own food using sunlight, water and carbon dioxide through a process called photosynthesis.
QUICK FACTS
The flowers may be blue, violet, lavender or almost white.
• Its leaves float on the surface while the roots are anchored in the mud below.
• Waterlilies provide habitat and food within freshwater wetland ecosystems.
• Their flowers attract insects that can carry pollen between flowers. Pollination allows flowering plants to reproduce.
• Waterlilies are also an important traditional food resource in Kakadu; Parks Australia includes waterlilies among the area's bush foods.
PETE'S PHOTO STORY
Waterlilies are one of my favourite subjects to photograph. I was photographing this beautiful flower when a small flying insect appeared above the bright yellow centre. I had only a moment to capture it hovering there. It's those unexpected moments that can turn a simple photograph into something special.