Perennial floating herbs with rhizomatous stems, rhizome densely coveted With petiole of dead leaves. Leaves 14-28 x 8-26 cm, ± orbicular, sagittate to cordate, sharply sinuate-toothed densely hairy on the lowerside, sparcely hairy to ± granulated on the upper surface, petiole and pedicel 20-100 Can long. Flowers (5-) 8-15 (-20) cm across. Sepals 3.5-7 x 1.5-2.5 cm, oblong-oblong lanceolate, entire, obtuse to acute, 5-7 ribbed, greenish. Petals 4-7 x 1.5-3 cm, whitish, pinkish or ± bluish with pinkish tinge, oblong, ovate-oblong. Stamens in 3 rows, 1.5-35 cm long, broadly dilated at the base without distinct appendages. Carpels (stigmatic rays) 15-30, club shaped, converging towards the centre of the flower. Fruit 3.5-5 cm, globose, maturing under the water. Seeds numerous, c. 2 mm long, blackish with spongy aril.

Fl. Per.: Almost throughout the year.

Type: Habitat in India Oriental.

C-7 Campbellpur dist.: Near Fateh Jang, M. A. Siddiqi & Y. Nasir 6527 (RAW), C-8 Gujranwala dist.: South of Gujranwala, R. R. Stewart 23661 (RAW), PMS Sukkur dist.: on way to Shikarpur, M. Qaiser & Saood Omer 7537, 7539, 7548 (KUH), G-4 Karachi dist.: Zoology department, Karachi twivenity, 12. 5. 1977, Zaibun-Nita s.n. (KUH), Zoological garden, Karachi 13.5.1977, Zaibun-Nisa & Abror Hussain s.n. (KUH), G-5 Gharo-Sakro road, M. Qaiser, Saood Omer & Rizwan Yusuf 7503 & 7506 (KUH), Sajjawal, on way to Thatta, M. Qaiser & Saood Omer 7511, 7516 (KUH).

Distribution: Throughout the warmer parts of Indian subcontinent, extending uptill Malaysia, S. E. Asia to the Philippines and New Guinea.

Nvmphaea rubra Roth. is sometimes treated as an independent species. Canard, The Water Lilies: Monog. Genus Nymphaea 199.1905 distinguished Nymphaea rubra Roxb. from Nymphaea pubescens Willd. on the basis of colour of flowers and size of the leaves. In the former species, the flowers are pink with larger leaves and in the later species the flowers are white with smaller leaves. However, we have seen the plants with white flowers and larger leaves or vice versa. Therefore, Nymphaea rubra Roxb. is treated here as a synonym of Nymphaea pubescens Willd.

A fairly common night flowering species. Flowers open in the evening and close late in the next morning.