Aquatic Flowers _ Ornaments of Water Kingdom

Aqua Flowers, Aquatic Beauty!

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Magnoliophyta, also called angiosperms). The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs. Flowers give rise to fruit and seeds. Many flowers have evolved to be attractive to animals, so as to cause them to be vectors for the transfer of pollen.

In addition to facilitating the reproduction of flowering plants, flowers have long been admired and used by humans to beautify their environment, but also as objects of romance, ritual, religion, medicine and as a source of food.

Here are some Aquatic Flowers:

1. Amazon Lily

Victoria amazonica or Amazon Lily is a species of flowering plant, the largest of the Nymphaeaceae family of water lilies. The species has very large leaves, up to 3 m in diameter that float on the water's surface on a submerged stalk, 7–8 m in length. The species was once called Victoria regia after Queen Victoria, but the name was superseded. 

Victoria amazonica is native to the shallow waters of the Amazon River basin, such as oxbow lakes and bayous. It is depicted in the Guyanese coat of arms. The flowers are white the first night they are open and become pink the second night. They are up to 40 cm in diameter, and are pollinated by beetles.

2. Water Lily

Nymphaea nouchali or Water Lily, commonly known as the Red and blue water lily, Blue star water lily,Star lotus, or by its synonym Nymphaea stellata, is a water lily of genus Nymphaea. This aquatic plant is native to the Indian Subcontinent area.

In its natural state the Red and blue water-lily is found in static or slow-flowing aquatic habitats of little to moderate depth. Nymphaea nouchali is the National flower of Bangladesh (where it is known as "Shapla") .It was spread to other countries already in ancient times and has been long valued as a garden flower in Thailand and Myanmar to decorate ponds and gardens.

3. Water Hyacinth

One of the fastest growing plants known, water hyacinth reproduces primarily by way of runners or stolons, which eventually form daughter plants. It also produces large quantities of seeds, and these are viable up to thirty years. The common water hyacinth’s (Eichhornia crassipes) are vigorous growers known to double their population in two weeks.

The leaves are 10–20 cm across, and float above the water surface. They have long, spongy and bulbous stalks. The feathery, freely hanging roots are purple-black. An erect stalk supports a single spike of 8-15 conspicuously attractive flowers, mostly lavender to pink in colour with six petals. When not in bloom, water hyacinth may be mistaken for frog's-bit.

4. Lotus

Nelumbo nucifera, known by a number of names including Indian Lotus, Sacred Lotus, Bean of India, Padma or simply Lotus native to Tropical Asia and Queensland, Australia. It is commonly cultivated in water gardens. The white and pink lotuses are national flowers of India and Vietnam, respectively.

The roots of Nelumbo nucifera are planted in the soil of the pond or river bottom, while the leaves float on top of the water surface or are held well above it. The flowers are usually found on thick stems rising several centimeters above the leaves. The plant normally grows up to a height of about 150 cm and a horizontal spread of up to 3 meters, but some unverified reports place the height as high as over 5 meters. The leaves may be as large as 60 cm in diameter, while the showy flowers can be up to 20 cm in diameter.

5. Bog Arum

Calla (Bog Arum, Marsh Calla) is a genus of flowering plant in the family Araceae, containing the single species Calla palustris. It is native to cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, in central, eastern and northern Europe (France and Norway eastward), northern Asia and northern North America (Alaska, Canada, northeastern contiguous United States).

It is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant growing in bogs and ponds. The leaves are rounded to heart-shaped, 6–12 cm long on a 10–20 cm petiole, and 4–12 cm broad. The greenish-yellow inflorescence is produced on a spandex about 4–6 cm long, enclosed in a white spate. The fruit is a cluster of red berries, each berry containing several seeds.

6. Water Smartweed

Persicaria amphibia is a species of flowering plant in the knotweed family known by several common names, including water knotweed, water smartweed, and amphibious bistort. It is native to much of North America and Eurasia, but it is known on most continents as an introduced species and sometimes a noxious weed. It grows in many types of wet habitat, such as ponds, streams, and marshes

The plant produces a thick stem from its rhizome. The stem may creep, float, or grow erect, rooting at stem nodes that come in contact with moist substrate. Stems are known to reach 3 meters long in aquatic individuals. The stems are ribbed and may be hairless to quite hairy in texture. Leaves are lance-shaped or take various other shapes and are borne on petioles. They may be over 30 centimeters in length.

7. Water Morning Glory

Ipomoea aquatica is a semi-aquatic tropical plant grown as a leaf vegetable. It is known in English as Water Spinach, Water Morning Glory, Water Convolvulus, or by the more ambiguous names "Chinese spinach" and "swamp cabbage". It has many other names in other languages, such as "Phak bung" in Thai and "Kangkung" in Malay and Indonesian. It is found throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world.

Ipomoea aquatica grows in water or on moist soil. Its stems are 2–3 meters (7–10 ft) or more long, rooting at the nodes, and they are hollow and can float. The leaves vary from typically sagittate (arrow-head-shaped) to lanceolate, 5–15 centimeters (2–6 in) long and 2–8 centimeters (0.8–3 in) broad. The flowers are trumpet-shaped, 3–5 centimeters (1–2 in) diameter, usually white in color with a mauve centre. The flowers can form seed pods which can be used for planting.

8. Water-Pepper

Water-pepper or Water pepper (Persicaria hydropiper) is a plant of the family Polygonaceae. It grows in damp places and shallow water. It is a cosmopolitan plant, found in Australia, New Zealand, temperate Asia, Europe, and North America. It has some use as a spice because of its pungent flavour.

The water-pepper has several active ingredients. The plant contains an essential oil (0.5%) which consists of monoterpenoids and sesquiterpenoids:α-pinene, β-pinene, 1,4-cineol, fenchone, α-humulene, β-caryophyllene, .Carboxylic acids (cinnamic, valeric and caproic acid) and their esters were present in traces. The composition depends strongly on genetic factors.

9. Water Poppy

Limnocharitaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants in the monocot order Alismatales. It is commonly known as the water poppy family. They are small, perennial, aquatic herbs, native to the tropics, but adventives or naturalized in the subtropics as a result of cultivation.

Limnocharitaceae consists of three genera, and these, in turn comprise eight species. Some of the species are closely related and, consequently, hard to identify. Butomopsis is monospecific (B. latifolia) and indigenous to tropical Africa, Southeast Asia, and northern Australia.  It has become a weed in Indonesia. It is sometimes sold as an ornamental for aquariums. Hydrocleys

Has five species. . Hydrocleys nymphoides is common in water gardens, and probably for this reason, it is persistent in the wild in Florida and Texas.

10. Spring Cress

The Bulbous Cress, Bittercress, or Spring Cress (Cardamine bulbosa) is a perennial plant native to eastern North America.

This plant grows in moist soils of bottomland woods and wet meadows. In late spring and early summer, white flowers are produced well above the foliage.

11. California Bulrush

Schoeneoplectus californicus is a species of sedge known by the common names California bulrush and giant bulrush. It is also sometimes called "tule", but the closely related Schoenoplectus acutus is the more correct owner of that name.

Schoeneoplectus californicus is a rhizome water plant found in marshy areas from southern and western North America to South America and on Pacific islands including some of those in the Hawaiian and Cook chains. It has tall, thin, dark green stems which are usually triangular in cross-section and woolly, bristly tan or brown flowers in panicle inflorescences.

12. Water Snowflake

Nymphoides also is a genus of aquatic flowering plants in the family Menyanthaceae. The genus name refers to their resemblance to the water lily Nymphaea. Nymphoides are aquatic plants with submerged roots and floating leaves that hold the small flowers above the water surface. Flowers are sympetalous, most often divided into five lobes (petals).

The petals are either yellow or white, and may be adorned with lateral wings or covered in small hairs. The inflorescence consists of either an umbellate cluster of flowers or a lax raceme, with internodes occurring between generally paired flowers.

13. Water Fringe

Nymphoides peltata (syn. Villarsia nymphaeoides, Fringed Water-lily, Yellow Floating-heart, Water Fringe) is an aquatic plant of the family Menyanthaceae native to Eurasia. It has cordate floating leaves that support a lax inflorescence of yellow flowers with fringed petal margins. The fruit is a capsule bearing many flattened seeds with stiff marginal hairs.

The plants are commonly sold for use in ornamental water gardens. Outside their native range, however, they can escape cultivation and become nuisance noxious weeds.

14. Lady's Smock

Cardamine pratensis (Cuckoo Flower or Lady's Smock), is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae, native throughout most of Europe and Western Asia. Cardamine pratensis is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 40-60 cm tall, with pinnate leaves 5-12 cm long with 3-15 leaflets, each leaflet about 1 cm long. The flowers are produced on a spike 10-30 cm long, each flower 1-2 cm diameter with four pale pink (rarely white) petals. It grows best close to water.

It is grown as an ornamental plant in gardens, and has become naturalised in North America as a result of cultivation. In some European countries, including parts of Germany, the plant is now under threat. It is a food plant for the orange tip butterfly and makes a valuable addition to any garden which aims at attracting wildlife. It was once used as a substitute for Watercress. Article source: Wikipedia