water lily ID

 A water lily with variegated foliage. I think it's a Nymphaea alba
cultivar. Does anyone happen to know which one?

     http://www.stewart.hinsley.me.uk/Images/Nympha42a.jpg
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Stewart Robert Hinsley

 "Stewart Robert Hinsley"  wrote ...

Difficult to get an idea of the size of the plant but Nymphaea tetragona is
a small white flowered (about 2 inches across) one with brown blotches on
the leaves.
Plants sold as N. alba are very variable such that there is some question if
they are all the species or hybrids with the above species and others.

--
Regards  Bob Hobden
Posting to this Newsgroup from the W. of London UK

 
It's normal sized, or possibly a little robust, for Nymphaea alba.


Stewart Robert Hinsley

 "Stewart Robert Hinsley"  wrote

So it's a large white alba type with brown blotched leaves...
Sounds exactly like "Gracillima alba" (Marliac 1901) possibly thrown in that
pond by someone, it's not available these days as far as I know, possibly
lost to cultivation like a number of Marliac hybrids.

The problem I have is the brown blotched leaves, N.alba and it's true
varieties have, as far as I know, plain green leaves (sometimes red
underneath) which suggests to me the one you photographed is a hybrid plant.

--
Regards  Bob Hobden
Posting to this Newsgroup from the W. of London UK

 
The garden in which it was photographed is 71 years old, but the section
containing the pond only dates to 1958. I'd assume that the pond is
younger and the water lily younger still. Old planting baskets can be
seen in the pond, so I assume that it was deliberately planted, rather
than just thrown in - I'm not so sure about some of the other plants
there, such as the Menyanthes trifoliata (bogbean).

I am quite willing to accept the hypothesis that it is a hybrid. I've
been using the rule of thumb that the white-flowered plants are Nymphaea
alba, and others are Nyphaea x marliacea, but it's only a rule of thumb.
(For example there's a wild red-flowered variety of alba in Sweden.)

If you don't already have it, you might be interested in

    http://www.archive.org/details/waterliliesmonog00conruoft

(found looking for references to 'Gracillima Alba').

(I also found

     http://www.victoria-adventure.org/waterlilies/names/names_a_z.htm

.)
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley