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Rocky Mountain cowlily, Rocky Mountain pond-lily, spatterdock, wakas, yellow pond-lily

Rhizomes

3-8 cm diam.

Leaves

blade abaxially and adaxially green, widely ovate, 10-40(-45) × 7-30 cm, ca. 1.2-1.5 times as long as wide, sinus 1/3-2/3 length of midrib, lobes divergent to overlapping;

surfaces glabrous.

Flowers

5-10 cm diam.;

sepals mostly (6-)9(-12), abaxially green to adaxially yellow, sometimes red-tinged toward base;

petals oblong, thick;

anthers 3.5-9 mm, slightly shorter than filaments.

Fruit

green to yellow, cylindric to ovoid, 4-6(-9) × 3.5-6 cm, strongly ribbed, slightly constricted below stigmatic disk;

stigmatic disk green, 20-35 mm diam., entire to crenate;

stigmatic rays 8-26(-36), linear to lanceolate, terminating within 1(-1.5) mm from margin of disk.

Seeds

3.5-5 mm.

2n

= 34.

Nuphar polysepala

Phenology Flowering spring (later in north)-summer.
Habitat Ponds, lakes, and sluggish streams
Elevation 0-3700 m (0-12100 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; BC; NT; YT
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[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Plants intermediate between Nuphar polysepala and N. variegata occur in eastern British Columbia.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Nymphaeaceae > Nuphar
Sibling taxa
N. advena, N. microphylla, N. orbiculata, N. rubrodisca, N. sagittifolia, N. ulvacea, N. variegata
Synonyms N. lutea subsp. polysepala, Nymphaea polysepala
Name authority Engelmann: Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis 2: 282. 1865 (as polysepalum)
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