Giant Waterlily
Victoria sp. · Garden flowers
Giant Waterlily
Kew Gardens, 13 September 2017
The rim is the giveaway. Victoria waterlilies turn the edge of each pad up into a vertical wall several inches high, so a mature leaf sits on the water like a shallow tin. Underneath is a lattice of ribs stiffened with air, rigid enough to carry a small child if the weight is spread. Joseph Paxton studied that structure at Chatsworth and fed it straight into his roof for the Crystal Palace.
Which species is harder. Victoria amazonica and V. cruziana are separated on rim height and the colour of the underside, neither visible here, and most botanic gardens now grow a hybrid of the two. The white bloom at the left edge is a first-night flower. They open white and female, close overnight around whatever scarab beetles have crawled in, then reopen the next evening as pink and male before sinking to set seed.
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