Dotleaf Waterlily

Reports of Nymphaea ampla in southern Texas by H. S. Conard (1905) are confirmed by specimens although no recent collections have been seen.

Rhizomes unbranched, erect, ovoid; stolons absent. Leaves: petiole glabrous. Leaf blade abaxially purple, often spotted, adaxially green, ovate to nearly orbiculate, 15-45 × 15-45 cm, margins dentate to spinose-dentate; venation radiate and prominent centrally, without weblike pattern, principal veins 13-29; surfaces glabrous. Flowers emersed, 7-18 cm diam., opening and closing diurnally, only sepals and outermost petals in distinct whorls of 4; sepals green, abaxially flecked with short dark streaks, faintly veined, lines of insertion on receptacle not prominent; petals 12-21, white; stamens 50-190, yellow, outer with connective appendage projecting 3-10 mm beyond anther; filaments widest at or below middle, mostly equal to or shorter than anthers; pistil 14-25-locular, appendages at margin of stigmatic disk short-triangular, to 3 mm. Seeds nearly globose to ellipsoid, 1.2-1.6 × 0.9-1.3 mm, 1.2-1.5 times as long as broad, with longitudinal rows of hairlike papillae 40-180 µm.

Fla., Tex.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America.

Flowering all year.

Ditches, canals, ponds, and freshwater tidal margins; 0-350m.

Castalia ampla Salisbury, Ann. Bot. (König & Sims) 2: 73. 1805

Nymphaea ampla, the dotleaf waterlily, is a species of flowering plant in the family Nymphaeaceae. It is native to Texas, Florida, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern and western South America.

Nymphaea ampla is widely represented in Mayan art, especially in its depictions with jaguars and Mayan kings. Its cultural importance can be seen in one of the Mayan names of the plant; nikte’ha’ ("vulva of the water") as it would have represented life, sexual activity, fertility, and birth. The plant causes opiate-like effects on the user and is known to have been used as a calmative and mild trance inducer.

In Lake Nicaragua

At the Bergianska trädgården

Close-up of flower