Yellow Water-lily

Yellow Water-lily - Nuphar luteum

Water plant, locally known as Fogliaccine, with large, fleshy, submerged rhizome, from which grow the floating stalks and leaves which can reach up to three metres in length.

Other leaves remain permanently under water. The emerged leaves, definite oval in shape, can grow to 30 cm wide and 40 cm long.

At the end of spring they lie flat on the water surface, but during summer, as the water level lowers, they often curl up. The yellow flowers are very small (5-7 cm in diameter) and much less striking that those of the White Water-lily; they normally emerge quite a few centimetres out of the water. The fruit is a large capsule that looks like a small paunched bottle. It flowers from May to September.

The Yellow Water-lily lives in fresh slow-flowing or stagnant water, up to 3-4 metre deep, often together with the White Water-lily. It is quite common in northern Italy and in suitable habitats in the Tyrrhenian regions, but it is rather scarce or totally absent elsewhere.

There are slightly more individuals than in the past in the Ramone Marshlet and Lake Sibolla, unlike at the Fucechio Marshes where numbers have dwindled.