The Scientific Classification of the Water Lily

Classification

• As of 2011, water lilies were determined to belong to the plant family Nymphaeceae, a member of the Magnoliopsida class that includes magnolias. Water lilies are found in 46 of the 48 continguous United States as well as Hawaii and Alaska. Four separate genera live in this region of the world. Native members include the dotleaf, Nymphaea x. daubenyana, tropical royalblue, James', Leiberg's, yellow, American white, pygmy and Nymphaea x. thonia water lilies.

Genera

• The 10 overlapping genera of water lilies of the world add to the confusion. Water lilies have been assigned previously to one to three orders and from three to six families. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, contend that the unique characteristics of water lilies are at the root of uncertainty surrounding their classification. At present, these botanists have identified possibly three divergent types of water lilies.

Factors

• The ancient ancestors of water lilies and subsequent offspring were rather more prone to mutate and crossbreed than many other plants, resulting in several divergent paths of evolution. These differences created a wide variety of flower forms, stem configurations and leaf variations. Thus, categories are not discrete and tend to blend into one another. This murky morphology contributes to the confusion over classification, thus the trend toward studying recombinant DNA to track past mutations.

North America

• Despite the confusion and controversy surrounding the members of the Nymphacaea family, determining the most common water lily in North America is easy. The American white water lily is found in nearly every state of the Union. Known as Nymphacaea odorata, it is one of the varieties under study by taxonomists and evolutionary biologists.