Guyana · #1 aquatic plant National flower of Guyana; on the country’s coat of arms
Amazon water lily
Victoria amazonica · locally: Victoria regia lily
The world’s largest water lily – its round leaves reach 3 m across, and over two nights its flower turns from white to pink.
The Amazon water lily is a giant aquatic plant of the water lily family whose floating leaves, with upturned rims, reach up to 3 m across; their undersides are covered in spines and a network of ribs that keep the leaves buoyant. The large, fragrant flowers open at dusk: on the first night they are white and attract beetles, which stay trapped inside the flower until the following evening, and on the second night they turn pink and release their pollinators. It grows in the calm, shallow waters of oxbow lakes and backwaters of lowland rivers. The structure of its leaves inspired the design of the Crystal Palace in London.
Significance in the country
It was in Guyana, on the Berbice River, that Robert Schomburgk found the plant in 1837, and it was named in honour of Queen Victoria; today it is the national flower and part of the state coat of arms.
Where it grows
In the backwaters and oxbow lakes of the Berbice, Demerara and Essequibo rivers and in the wetlands of the Rupununi savannas; easy to see in places such as the botanical garden in Georgetown.
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