Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden, South Africa

Common name: Santa Cruz waterlelie, Santa Cruz water-lily, Victoria water-lily, water platter

Family: Nymphaeaceae (Water-lily)

Synonym: Victoria argentina

Distribution: South America

IUCN Red list: Not evaluated

Life form: Aquatic

Usage: Edible, medicinal

Comments: Victoria cruziana grow in slow-flowing rivers and oxbow lakes in the South American Amazon. The flowers open for two nights, changing colour from white on the first night, to pink on the second. They attracts the large beetle pollinators with a fruity scent. Amazingly, Victoria lilies also encourage the beetles visit and stay active in the flower by heating the floral chamber up to 10°C above ambient temperature on the first evening. Heating or thermagenisis decreases to morning and the beetles leave covered in pollen to transfer to another flower. Once pollinated, the flower stem contracts to pull it under water where the seeds form and are deposited in the silty mud to grow in the coming seasons.
The root, stem, and seeds are all edible and this plant is also used in traditional medicine. Amazonian indigenous women were reported to rest their babies on the gargantuan leaves of up to 2m in diameter whilst harvesting the seeds to make a nutritious flour. The leaves are relatively fragile but buoyant due to a waxy coating and a support network of large air-filled veins underneath. The veins are also covered in vicious spikes to protect from nibbling fish.