Giant Amazon Waterlily
Botanic Garden
The Giant Amazon Waterlily, Victoria amazonica, is the largest member of the waterlily family. Each leaf can grow to two metres in diameter and can support the weight of a small child. Plants produce numerous sweet, pineapple scented, white flowers which first open during the night to reveal only the female sexual organs (carpels) and a nectar reward for their beetle pollinators. Before dawn, the flowers close trapping the beetles within. The flowers are thermogenic and maintain beetle metabolism and activity at a high level. On the second night the now pink-purple twenty-four hour old flowers open releasing their beetle captives which pick up pollen from the now matured male organs (anthers). The beetles fly off to find a female flower and so transfer and repeat the process.
- Photographer: Nicholas Wray
- Copyright: University of Bristol
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