Nymphaea candida

Perennial aquatic herb with both floating and submerged leaves.

The lamina of floating leaves is wide (10–30 cm). The petioles of floating leaves are long and the length can occasionally exceed 2 m.

The rhizome is robust and vertical or oblique, and grows at the bottom of a body of water.

The leaves are petiolate and stipulate. The petioles are filled with hollow air chambers. The lamina is wide and entire. The submerged leaves are short-petiolate and the lamina is smooth, thin and oblong. The floating leaves are long-petiolate. The petiole is thick and terete. The lamina of floating leaves is rather round with reticulate venation, waxy lustrous and dark green above, and often reddish purple beneath.

The flower is actinomorphic, large, 5–15 cm wide, bowl-shaped or half-spherical. The pedicel ends abrubtly where the receptacle begins. The bud is acute. The calyx is four-leaved. The corolla consists of numerous up-curved ovate petals. The petals are white or occasionally reddish or red. The androecium and gynoecium are many-leaved. The ovary of the connate gynoecium is multi-locular and semi-inferior.

The fruit is a fleshy capsule. The receptacle coils after flowering, and the fruit matures underwater. A seed is 4-6 mm long.