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Yellow Water-Lily

Yellow Water-Lily

Nuphar lutea

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How common: Very common

Yellow Water-Lily is a floating‑leaved water plant with glossy, bright yellow, cup‑shaped flowers. It is common in still and slow waters such as ponds, lakes, quiet rivers and sheltered brackish bays across much of Eurasia. All parts are poisonous.

Did you know?

  • The flowers smell sweet at first, but as they age the scent can turn slightly stale.
  • Unlike the white water‑lily, it also thrives in gently flowing water.

About the species

Identification

A perennial water plant with both floating and underwater leaves, anchored by a thick horizontal stem in the mud. Floating leaves are long‑oval with a narrow notch at the base, smooth‑edged, waxy and shiny, pale green on both sides, often 15–30 cm long on very long stalks. Underwater leaves are thinner, roundish and wrinkled. Flowers are bright yellow, rounded and glossy, about 4–6 cm across, held at or just above the surface and scented. The fruit is a green to brown bottle‑like pod that ripens on the water surface. Larger than Small Yellow Water‑lily; unlike White Water‑lily, the flower is a cup, not star‑like. Flowers in Finland from June to August.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

water

Toxicity

A poisonous plant – do not taste it. Source: HUS Poison Information Centre (Finland), tel. 0800 147 111.

Flowering

Jun–Aug

About the habitat

Grows in ponds, lakes and slow rivers, and in sheltered brackish bays. Most often from the shoreline shallows down to around two metres deep, with floating leaves in shallower water and mostly underwater leaves when deeper. Common almost throughout Finland; rare in the northernmost Lapland.

Sources

Photo: Uoaei1, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nuphar lutea Krumpendorf 02.jpg

Text: Pinkka: BIO-503 Suomen kasvisto ja kasvillisuus - Sisävedet: humusjärvet, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.37845

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulpukka

See also