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Water lily is a common name for members of the Nymphaeaceae family of flowering aquatic plants. There are about 70 species of water lily divided among several genera. They are all rooted in soil and have leaves and flowers that float on the surface of water or emerge from it. Water lilies have been extensively studied because biologists believe their shapes resemble those of the earliest flowering plants. A common misconception is that water lilies and lotus plants are closely related. They are not.

Water lily flowers have spiky petals and are very colorful. The following pictures were taken at the San Diego Zoo. Some were in a free flight aviary in the Africa Rocks area, and the rest were in the new Hummingbird exhibit.

Lily pads, the leaves of water lilies, come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The ones in the photo below are the ones that people most commonly think of when thinking of lily pads.

Lily pads don't always sit flat on the water's surface.

Some lily pads are as much as five feet across and can support as much as 140 pounds like this Giant Lily pad at At Shuangxi Park in Taipei, Taiwan.

Water lilies typically bloom from May through September depending on the species and are dormant the rest of the year. Most are daytime bloomers requiring warm weather and plenty of sunshine, but some tropical varieties bloom at night.

The famous French Impressionist painter, Claude Monet (1840 - 1926), produced hundreds of water lily paintings in his later years based on a garden at his home in Giverny, France north of Paris. This is one of them.

The Japanese woodblock print below titled Iris and Water Lily is a 1931 reproduction of an ukiyo-e print originally done by the Edo period Rinpa School artist, Sakai Hōitsu (1761 - 1829). Hōitsu was famous for having revived the popularity of Ogata Kōrin which helped to gain formal recognition for the Rinpa School style of art.

This last painting is an ukiyo-e print by Katsushika Hokusai (1760 - 1849) from a series titled 100 Poems Explained by the Nurse. This one, painted between 1835 and 1838, is titled Women Gathering Water Lilies.