General: Perennial aquatic herb with leaves and flowers arising directly from a thick, scaly rhizome.

 

Leaves: Floating, palmately veined,  7–30 cm long, 5–25 cm wide, red or purple beneath; rounded with narrow V-shaped split; stalks long, rounded, with four air channels that carry oxygen to the rhizome.

 

Flowers: White, showy, fragrant, 7–20 cm wide, with many white petals and four green sepals on a rounded receptacle, solitary on long stalks; floating on surface of water; open only from mid-morning to early afternoon; throughout summer.

 

Fruits: Leathery berries with many seeds; ripening under water in mid- to late summer.

 

Where found: In slow-moving or still water in lakes, ponds, and rivers; from Newfoundland to the Manitoba, south to Texas and Florida.

 

Notes:

 

 

 

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