This is a perennial aquatic plant with floating leaves and flowers, the latter 10-12 cm across. The leaf and flower stalks are 50-300 cm long, issuing from the rootstalk on the bottom soil. In the evening, the flowers seal and submerge, and in the morning they float up and open again.
This is a widespread species common in lakes, bayous, back-waters and overgrowing peat lakes. They prefer clean water, and often disappear following household or industrial pollution. It flowers May through August.
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