A Magical Encounter With Giant Victoria Water Lilies

The Giant Victoria water lily is one of the wonders of the plant kingdom and the Naples Botanical Garden recently celebrated everything water lilies in their Water Gardens that remind you of Claude Monet’s water lily pool.

If this were a fairy tale, you would fancy yourself a dapper looking frog happily hopping from one large water lily pad to the next – but the reality is far more exciting as these mega-size water lily pads or giant platters can support the weight of a small human! And you don’t have to travel to a remote South American river to marvel on the extreme size and beauty of the Victoria water lilies.

During the weekend celebration nearly everyone who walked through the water gardens had plenty of ‘oohs” and “aahs” over the diverse collection of hundreds of hardy and tropical water lilies. These mesmerizing flowers in surreal shades of pinks, deep reds, blues, yellows and whites were rising above the dark waters and floating solitarily near bright green, speckled maroon or purple pads.

The captive audience at Kapnick Brazilian Garden listened to Naples Botanical Garden’s Adrienne Lewis talk about the Giant Victoria water lily. Did you know that Victoria water lilies, according to fossil records, have existed since the Cretaceous period (145-66 million years ago) and they predate even the dinosaurs who went extinct about 65 million years ago. The water lilies continued on to the present age.

Water lilies are very tough plants and can withstand a lot. Adrienne wanted to impress upon the visitors who come to the garden that as they connect with plants they know, there is so much for scientists, botanists and anthropologists to discover and to learn about not only water lilies but all plants.

According to historical records, the Victoria water lilies were first observed in Bolivia by the Bohemian botanist Thaddaeus Haenke in 1801 and brought to Europe in the early 1800s. They were named in honor of Queen Victoria, who visited the first flowering plant in London’s Botanic Garden in 1852.

The two species of giant lily platters, Victoria Amazonica and Victoria cruziana, are present at the Naples Botanical Garden. There is also a Longwood hybrid that produces a pad that is larger but I couldn’t tell the difference.

According to Adrienne, just as recently as July 2022, scientists and botanists discovered a new botanical marvel, a third species that is the biggest in the world! It was previously mistaken for a Victoria Amazonica.

The latest addition has been named Victoria boliviana in honor of the home of this giant water lily (Bolivia). It comes with a record-breaking width of 10 feet in the wild and can hold the weight of a full-grown man!

The Victoria water lilies are an evolutionary wonder, pollinated only by scarab beetles! Often overshadowed by bees and butterflies as pollinators, beetles are known as the first flower-visiting insects in history, pollinating magnolias, lotuses and water lilies – flowers with musky, spicy or fermented scents. That’s how you can tell if a plant is “old,” in the scale of living things, according to Adrienne.

Kathy Cahill is Naples Botanical Garden’s Aquatic Areas Manager and curator of the Water Gardens. Her passion is to collect water lilies and organize them with an artistic eye for the pleasure of the viewing public. Her water lily collection showed an aesthetic cohesion for everyone to admire.  

According to Kathy, most of the award-winning water lily hybrids in the Water Garden came from Florida Aquatic Nurseries that grow and sell water lilies and aquarium plants.

Water lilies have long been considered gems of the aquatic world both in ancient and modern times. They are celebrated for their beauty and immortalized in art and religion. French impressionist Claude Monet painted a series of approximately 250 water lily oil paintings.