#Nuphar polysepala

[pnwnativeplants]

Yellow pond lily (Nuphar polysepala) in the dry pond bed as the frost comes in

[susiestamps]

US 1992 29¢ Indian Pond Lily (Nuphar polysepala)

[bryoria]

Yes!

1. has Abies lasiocarpa var. bifolia, and European mountain ash, sorbus aucuparia.

2. also has Rhododendron albiflorum, or Cascade azalea, and Mentha longifolia, or horsemint/wild mint. the berries here are Vaccinium membranaceum!

3, 4, 6, 7, and 8 all contain the same, being the same location.

5. has Alnus viridis ssp. sinuata, aka Sitka Alder, as well as Amelanchier alnifolia var. cusickii, or Cusick’s serviceberry, and Spiraea douglasii, Douglas spiraea. The grass I’m not confident in, but it is either leymus cinereus, aka basin wild rye, or agrostis exarta, aka bentgrass. As for trees, I know there’s pinus ponderosa, pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca, and pinus monticola. Next time I’m up there I’ll see if there’s any I missed!

edit: also nuphar lutea ssp. polysepala (yellow pond-lily).

9. also has Vaccinium membranaceum, Xerophyllum tenax (beargrass) Pteridium aquilium (western bracken fern 😠), more Sitka Alder, Tsuga Mertensiana, and Sambucus nigra (common elderberry). There’s flowers in the foreground that I always get confused with pearly everlasting, but I’ll update this when I remember what they are.

killing mysrlf 1million deaths because I’m not hiking Right Nowww

[thebashfulbotanist]

Nuphar polysepala, called the great yellow pondlily or spatterdock, is an unusual-looking pondlily common in the Pacific Northwest. The showy yellow flowers are about the size of a baseball, and the leaves stand out of the water like those of a lotus, but pondlilies and lotuses are in different families. This plant was used by many Native American peoples in the Pacific Northwest for both food and medicines - one cool fact about the seeds is that they’re edible and can be popped like popcorn!

[dendroica]

Western Yellow Pond-Lily, Nuphar polysepala (by me)

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Before Monocots and Eudicots: The Basal Angiosperms

Originally posted at my blog at https://rebeccalexa.com/basal-angiosperms/

One of the nice things about living on a lake is that I can go kayaking whenever I feel like it–or, more realistically, when I have the time to do so. I hope someday to be the kind of person who can start every day with a serene glide across the water, but for now I take my opportunities as I’m able to. One of my favorite things about the experience is getting to start and end my journey by paddling through a huge patch of western yellow pond lily (Nuphar polysepala, previously categorized as a subspecies of Nuphar lutea). And it was this plant that was my introduction to the concept of basal angiosperms.

See, when I have a species I really like, I spend time researching it. So I decided to dig into the natural history of this plant, one of eight extant species in the genus. In addition to finding out that the seeds are edible, and the roots are a traditional medicine, I also learned that they are an example of basal angiosperms–something that piqued my interest in tracing the evolution of various beings.

Nuphar polysepala

Basal angiosperms are essentially the oldest orders of flowering plants. Prior to the first angiosperms, plants either reproduced with cones like today’s conifers and other gymnosperms, or through spores and gemmae as with bryophytes (which may also reproduce through fragmentation.) Flowers were a new mutation that used visually appealing structures and scents to attract animals as vehicles for spreading pollen to other members of the same plant species. Flower-producing plants–the angiosperms–have since exploded into countless species, with about 300,000 known species in existence today. The most ancient lineages are known as ANITA grade.

ANITA is short for a group of five orders: Amborellales, Nymphaeales, Illiciales, Trimeniaceae, and Austrobaileya. More recently Illiciales and Trimeniaceae have been folded into Austrobaileya, leaving the acronym shorter at ANA, though some recent papers persist in using ANITA.

Angiosperms are commonly thought to have evolved during the early Cretaceous Epoch, around 135 million years ago, though pollen that may be angiosperm in origin was found dating back to about 250 million years ago.  Soon after angiosperms appeared, their lineage began to branch out. The earliest branches to diverge were the basal angiosperms. Amborella trichopoda is the sole representative of the oldest branch; all other flowering plants share the same common ancestor from which Amborella‘s ancestors diverged.

Amborella trichopoda. By Scott Zona, CCA-2.0

Amborella lives all the way on the other side of the planet from me, on the island of Grand Terre in New Caledonia, which means my chances of getting to see it in person are pretty slim. However, there are lots of basal angiosperms out there, and they have some pretty interesting qualities.

If you learned about plants in middle school or junior high, you very likely learned about “monocots and dicots” as being the two main divisions of flowering plants. In truth, these two are joined by the basal angiosperms, and a fourth group, the Magnoliids. These latter Magnoliidae are the next-oldest group of angiosperms, and they and the basal angiosperms both pre-date the emergence of the monocots and dicots (now known as eudicots). Species in these older lineages have physical traits of both the monocots and eudicots, giving a glimpse of what flowers were like before these more numerous groups appeared. This also shows that monocots and eudicots have a common ancestry, rather than one evolving from the other.

The Nymphaeales, of which my beloved western pond lilies is a part, are a good example. If you examine the structure of a stem of a pond lily, it looks very much like that of a eudicot. Rather than having vascular tissue distributed throughout the the stem’s tissue as with a monocot, the vascular bundles are arranged in a circle like in a eudicot. But the stem lacks the eudicots’ cambium, which creates xylem and phloem.

Like the monocots, Nymphaeales flower parts are arranged in multiples of three, whether petals, stamens, etc. However, this does not mean the basal angiosperms are the direct ancestors of monocots. Compare Amborella which has varying numbers of tepals (the forerunner of sepals and petals), stamens, carpals and other parts depending on whether the flower is male or female. Neither sex of Amborella displays a trimerous (parts in multiples of three) flower. And, just for the record, eudicot flower parts generally show up in multiples of four or five.

The relationships among these various groups of flowering plants aren’t just dependent on the physical characteristics, though. A lot of what we’ve been learning lately about basal angiosperms comes through genetic research. For example, a recent debate concerns whether Amborella is the oldest basal angiosperm, or whether Amborella and the Nymphaeales together are the very oldest lineages, closer related to each other than the rest of the angiosperms.

Kadsura japonica

If you live in Australia, east Asia, or the Caribbean, you have species from the Austrobaileya in your region. Austrobaileya scandens is the only member of its genus and family, and is located in northeast Queensland. The Schisandraceae and Illiceaceae are woody plants found in tropical areas in east Asia and the Caribbean. While in tropical Southeast Asia, you might look for the Trimeniaceae, various species which may also be found in eastern Australia and the Pacific Islands. Amborella, of course, is limited to New Caledonia.

The Nymphaeales includes the better part of a hundred species, including the various water lilies, fanworts, and similar plants. They are quite widespread, found commonly (to include as invasive species in some cases) on all continents except for Antarctica.

As for me, I will continue to enjoy the presence of my local western yellow pond lilies. Now that I have a deeper understanding of their evolutionary history, I can better appreciate what unique neighbors they are!

Did you enjoy this post? Consider taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes, checking out my other articles, or picking up a paperback or ebook I’ve written! You can even buy me a coffee here!

[sfbgs]

Library Art Exhibit: Native Water Lilies of Yellowstone — Last Month! 🖼 🌼✨📸 Wilbur Wong's beautiful photographs convey a sense of peace and serenity. The great yellow pond lily, Nuphar polysepala, has been his inspiration, passion and subject for many years, involving repeated trips to Yellowstone in early summer. Immerse yourself in the extraordinary habitat of Native Water Lilies of Yellowstone. On exhibit and for sale in the Library until August 30. Details at sfbg.org/wong 🏔💧🌼✨ #botanicalart #sfbotanicalgarden #horticulturallibrary #library #waterlily #nupharpolysepala #nuphar #yellowstone (at San Francisco Botanical Garden) https://www.instagram.com/p/CgvNDdXtXGG/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[wild-west-wind]

Great Yellow Pond Lillies

Nuphar polysepala

[friendsrpbg]

J20170406-0007—Nuphar polysepala—RPBG—DxO by John Rusk Via Flickr: Nuphar polysepala—Rocky Mountain pond-lily. Found in the Rocky Mountains and all states westward. North to the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Alaska. Important food source for the Klamath and Modoc Indians living near Klamath Lake in Oregon. Photographed at Regional Parks Botanic Garden located in Tilden Regional Park near Berkeley, CA

[brittanyeburgard]

Another set of Nuphar polysepala photos, because you can never have too much Nuphar! The leaves provide habitat for aquatic invertebrates and the seeds are eaten by waterfowl, muskrat, and beaver. Ethnobotanically, many of the local tribes have medicinal uses for the plant. Some tribes slice and dry the rhizomes for food, but others consider them poisonous. #Nymphaeaceae #Nuphar #pondlily #lily #pond #lilypads #botany #botanize #plants #naturephotography #nature #arizona #rareplants #ecology #desert #dry #etymology #wildflowers (at Parks, Arizona)

[blrowanduck]

Dream or Nymph lake named after Nymphaea polysepala (recently renamed Nuphar polysepala) the species of water lily that grows in this lake.

[susiestamps]

US 1992 29¢ Indian Pond Lily (Nuphar polysepala)

[biodivlibrary]

Rocky Mountain Pond Lily (Nuphar polysepala). #SciArt by Matilda Smith for Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Vol. 146 (1920). Contributed for digitization by the Peter H. Raven Library at Missouri Botanical Garden (@mobotgarden) to #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/470375 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ #BHLCurtis #RockyMountainPondLily #YellowPondLily #PondLily #WaterLily #WaterLilies #floriculture #flowers #Botany #BotanicalArt #BHLib #Biodiversity #NaturalHistory #NatHist #ScientificIllustration #ScientificArt #OpenAccess #Libraries #Archives #SpecialCollections #WomeninBHLib #WomenInScience #WomenInNaturalHistory #WomeninNatHist #MatildaSmith #MBG

[wigmund]

From Earth Science Picture of the Day; January 3, 2017:

Yellowstone’s Little Two Ocean Lake Photographer and Summary Author: Ray Boren

Yellowstone National Park’s small, elongated Isa Lake does something remarkable — and unexpected. Perched at Craig Pass (elevation 8,262 ft/2,518 m), and straddling North America’s Continental Divide\, it 's believed to be the only natural lake in the world to drain into two different oceans — the Pacific and the Atlantic. Note that there are fabricated bodies of water that also drain into both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, notably the artificial Gatun Lake, which is part of the ocean-linking Panama Canal.

Winter snow is presently stacking up on the high watershed around Isa Lake, shown here blanketed with yellow Spatterdock Water Lilies (Nuphar polysepala) and large lily pads in summertime photos taken on July 14, 2016. But when that snow melts in spring, the lake will swell with runoff. That’s when, as the National Park Service notes at the site, “the lake does something extraordinary.”

As a pond with two outlets, Isa Lake, when full to the brim, sends mountain water via small streams and by simple seepage to the two oceans. And, due to its position in the Rocky Mountains, it does so in a manner contrary to our compass-oriented expectations: The outflow on the lake’s EAST side eventually heads toward the Pacific Ocean, far to the WEST, via Yellowstone’s Shoshone Lake and Lewis River, and eventually the Snake and Columbia Rivers. Meanwhile, the outflow on the lake’s WEST side contributes to the park’s Firehole River, which ultimately sends its water EAST and SOUTH via the Missouri, Mississippi and other rivers to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

Photo Details: Camera Model: NIKON D3200; Lens: AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G; Focal Length: 18mm (35mm equivalent: 27mm); Aperture: ƒ/8.0; Exposure Time: 0.020 s (1/50); ISO equiv: 400.

Isa Lake, Wyoming Coordinates: 44.440833, -110.719167

Related Links

Yellowstone Landscape

Triple Divide Peak, Montana

Floating Leaved Rooted Plants

Video About The Continental Divide at Yellowstone

Student Links

Geography of the US Continental Divide

Earth Observatory

Yellowstone National Park

[oregonianwisconsinite-blog]

Yellow pond lily (Nuphar polysepala)

[photapir]

Bulb of the N. polysepala flower. It struck me as some sort of organic spraygun, Yilane- or Alita-Venusian-biotech stylee.