Dwarf Water lily at Bristol University Botanical Gardens

I revisited the Bristol University Botanical Gardens in the hopes of getting a photo of the Datura that I forgot to photograph last time I was there. Unfortunately I could not find it but was informed that in any case the flowers had gone to seed.
On the other hand I did get to see these lovely Miniature Water lilies. I had some miniature ones in Australia when I was up in Townsville. I had them in my goldfish bowl. Those were minuscule compared to these.

Nymphaea 'Pygmaea Helvola'at the University of Bristol Botanical Gardens

Nymphaea 'Pygmaea Helvola'at the University of Bristol Botanical Gardens

Nymphaea 'Pygmaea Helvola'at the University of Bristol Botanical Gardens

Nymphaea 'Pygmaea Helvola'at the University of Bristol Botanical Gardens

Scientific Name: Nymphaea 'Pygmaea Helvola'

Common names: Minature Water lily, Hardy Water lily (English) ;

Taxonomic hierarchy: 

Kingdom: Plantae - Plants

Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae – Green plants

Infrakingdom: Streptophyta – Land plants

Division: Tracheophyta – Vascular plants

Subdivision: Spermatophytina – Spermatophytes (seed plants)

Infradivision: Angiospermae – Angiosperms (flowering plants)

Class: Magnoliopsida –

Superorder: Nymphaeanae –

Order: Nypmhaeales –

Family: Nymphaceae – Water lilies (English)

Genus: Nymphaea – 

Species: Nymphaea 'Pygmaea Helvola' – Minature Water lily,Hardy Water lily (English);

Notes: 

• I am using the taxonomical classification system used by ITIS (Intergrated Taxonomic Information System). I have decided to use this system in order to avoid confusion as well as because it offers a comprehensive hierarchy from kingdom right through to subspecies whereas other sources only go as far as order or  provide the names of some of the higher taxonomical ranks but only indicate "unclassified" rather than providing the rank.
• When and where possible I will endeavour to include alternatives classifications although  I may limit this to occasions where an opportunity arises to discuss the reason for the different classifications.
• Taxonomical data used in this post was retrieved [June 15 2014], from the Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database, http://www.itis.gov.

References:


On-line sources:

• Royal Horticultural Society: Entry for Nymphaea 'Pygmaea Helvola'
• Official Website of the: Bristol University Botanical Gardens
• Missouri Botanical gardens: Entry for Nymphaea 'Pygmaea Helvola'
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database: Entry for Nymphaea
• Wikipedia: Entry for Water Lilies
• Wikipedia: Entry for Nymphaeaceae

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/
· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

More Nymphaea at the Meise Botanical Gardens

The pond in the Victoria House is rather large as you can see. This enables it to contain several species of Nympheae as well as to accommodate at least two species of Victoria not to mention a host of other water plants. There appeared to be three Nymphaea although I may have missed some which were not flowering or looked like the ones I was able to get close enough to or at least zoom in on the name tags to see them. As it is two of them look very similar and it is only  when you look at them that you can see that there is a slight difference. But if they are in the middle of the pond ... several meters away ... well ... it is not as evident. You can judge for yourself from the photos below.

Nymphaea "Director G. T. Moore"

Nymphaea "Director G. T. Moore"

Note the similarity between Nymphaea "Director G. T. Moore" and Nympheae caerulea. Note however that part of the reason that the Nymphaea "Director G. T. Moore" looks a lot darker is because the Nympheae caerulea were in direct sunlight. To me it looks like the Nympheae caerulea has many more stamens. The problem is I still have not been able to figure out of Nymphaea "Director G. T. Moore" is an actual species or a cultivar or hybrid perhaps.

Nympheae caerulea

Nympheae caerulea

With Nympheae"General Pershing" on the other hand there is no difficulty in seeing that it is obviously a completely different plant although as with Nympheae"General Pershing" I am not sure if this is a species, cultivar or hybrid. To me it seems that whenever a name is in quotation marks it means that it is a hybrid. I could be wrong.
I will keep looking and when I find out or if someone writes in and enlightens me I will update the post.

Nympheae"General Pershing"

Nympheae"General Pershing"

Genus Name: Nymphaea

Common names: Water lilies (English) ;

Taxonomic hierarchy: 

Kingdom: Plantae - Plants

Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae – Green plants

Infrakingdom: Streptophyta – Land plants

Division: Tracheophyta – Vascular plants

Subdivision: Spermatophytina – Spermatophytes (seed plants)

Infradivision: Angiospermae – Angiosperms (flowering plants)

Class: Magnoliopsida –

Superorder: Nymphaeanae –

Order: Nypmhaeales –

Family: Nymphaceae – Water lilies (English)

Genus: Nymphaea – 

Species: Nymphaea 'Director G. T. Moore' – 

Species: Nymphaea caerulea – 
Species: Nymphaea 'General Perishing' – Blue Egyptian Water lily, Sacred Blue Egyptian Water lily (English); Lotus bleu d'Egypte (French); Egyptiche blauwe lotus (Dutch)

Notes: 

• I am using the taxonomical classification system used by ITIS (Intergrated Taxonomic Information System). I have decided to use this system in order to avoid confusion as well as because it offers a comprehensive hierarchy from kingdom right through to subspecies whereas other sources only go as far as order or  provide the names of some of the higher taxonomical ranks but only indicate "unclassified" rather than providing the rank.
• When and where possible I will endeavour to include alternatives classifications although  I may limit this to occasions where an opportunity arises to discuss the reason for the different classifications.
• Taxonomical data used in this post was retrieved [June 15 2014], from the Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database, http://www.itis.gov.

References:


On-line sources:

• Royal Horticultural Society: Entry for Water lilies
• Official Website of the: Meise Botanical Gardens
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database: Entry for Nymphaea
• Wikipedia: Entry for Water Lilies
• Wikipedia: Entry for Nymphaeaceae

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/
· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Nymphaea at the Meise Botanical Gardens

I had intended to do the introductory post about my visit to the Meise Botanical Gardens in Belgium before doing other posts related to it. Likewise I had intended to a similar introductory post about the University of Bristol Botanical Gardens before doing any posts on them. As it is I actually did write something about the University of Bristol Botanical Gardens describing them in quite some detail which is why later on I did a quick post about the water lilies there, only to discover when I tried to find the post in order to create a link to it that it did not exist. To make things worse I could not find the document I wrote anywhere which means that I will have to do it all over again from scratch. In the meantime I have decided to go ahead and do another water lily post.

Nymphea 'Director G. T. Moore' in the Victoria House of the Meise Greenhouse Complex

The Meise Botanical Gardens has a large greenhouse complex referred to as the "Plant Palace" which is divided in to distinct sections, each with its own micro climate tailored to the plants in it. The Victoria House is the most humid one of all and houses a number of the Water Lily Family, Nymphaeaceae which includes various Nymphaea (water lilies) and Victoria (Giant lilies), Lotus Family, Nelumbonaceae and other water plants.

Nymphea 'Director G. T. Moore'

One of the Nymphea that was in bloom was Nymphea 'Director G. T. Moore'. In the background you should also be able to see at least three other water plants.

I have been trying to find out if Nymphea 'Director G. T. Moore' is a species or a cultivar as well as who the illustrious 'Director G. T. Moore' is but have not had much luck yet.

As usual I will update the post when I find and verify additional information.
Future posts will include the following:

Victoria amazonica
Nymphaea caerulea
Nymphaea gigantea
Nelumbo nucifera 

Genus Name: Nymphaea

Common names: Water lilies (English) ;

Taxonomic hierarchy: 

Kingdom: Plantae - Plants

Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae – Green plants

Infrakingdom: Streptophyta – Land plants

Division: Tracheophyta – Vascular plants

Subdivision: Spermatophytina – Spermatophytes (seed plants)

Infradivision: Angiospermae – Angiosperms (flowering plants)

Class: Magnoliopsida –

Superorder: Nymphaeanae –

Order: Nypmhaeales –

Family: Nymphaceae – Water lilies (English)

Genus: Nymphaea – 

Species: Nymphaea 'Director G. T. Moore' – 

Notes: 

• I am using the taxonomical classification system used by ITIS (Intergrated Taxonomic Information System). I have decided to use this system in order to avoid confusion as well as because it offers a comprehensive hierarchy from kingdom right through to subspecies whereas other sources only go as far as order or  provide the names of some of the higher taxonomical ranks but only indicate "unclassified" rather than providing the rank.
• When and where possible I will endeavour to include alternatives classifications although  I may limit this to occasions where an opportunity arises to discuss the reason for the different classifications.
• Taxonomical data used in this post was retrieved [June 15 2014], from the Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database, http://www.itis.gov.

References:


On-line sources:

• Royal Horticultural Society: Entry for Water lilies
• Official Website of the: Meise Botanical Gardens
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database: Entry for Nymphaea
• Wikipedia: Entry for Water Lilies
• Wikipedia: Entry for Nymphaeaceae

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/
· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/