I took these photo's at Balboa Park in San Diego last August. Any idea's of identity? I searched the Water Lily database but couldn't find a match; probably impossible to identify but I thought I'd post the photo's just in case anyone might recognize them.

Lin - I am not very good at identification for the different waterlilies.

Your first photo looks like they are tropical waterlilies. In the second photo, they could be tropical and/or hardy waterlilies.

Wish I was better at ID'ing these plants for you.

Carolyn

I've been googling and read that Tropical Water Lilies have pads that are somewhat thin with scalloped or slightly toothy edges which the ones in both of my photo's seem to have so I will upload my photo's to the database at the General Plant Entry for Nymphaeas.

Are any of them Lotus?

There are both water lilies and lotus in the reflecting pool.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2012/...
http://www.theworldisraw.com/b...

That's what I thought, but not at all sure. They are stunning! Hard to investigate in the wild - unless you don't mind lethal swimming snakes and gators.

Thanks you two! Now that I've zoomed way in on my second photo I see there are both Nelumbo (Lotus) and Nymphaeas (Water Lilies) in the pond.

Tiffany: That wasn't a pond in the wild but rather a water garden at Balboa Park in San Diego. I don't think gators are found in California, so no gators or snakes either in that water garden ... only turtles, koi fish and the lovely lotus and lilies. I can't wait to go back to San Diego again to visit family friends and we will definitely go back to Balboa Park again!

LOL! I understood that, TY. My comment was just lamenting on why I don't know more about these. There's a huge swamp of them that I drive by once a week. I stopped the car & walked toward it one day, but it's so much rougher than it looks from the car. I chickened out when the vegetation got just shy of knee-deep. Not worth dying for on the side of the road, just to get a better look and it was obvious I would be risking ruining our camera if I tripped in a hole or something.

There's also patches of them in the lake in a nearby state park, but the same things keep me keeping my distance from those too. I know, I'm being a total girl about it, but I've seen too many snakes around to go traipsing through stuff like that, especially without somebody else around. The last time we went swimming in a creek, we saw 6 of them within a few hours, the guys killed one about 10 feet long.

What a great thing for parks to do - so few people have anywhere to have plants like these at home, and unlikely to get near them even out in the wild.

It occurred to me they might have some info on a website, but I didn't find anything so specific. I bet they just don't have time, keeping up with such a massive place. Wow! Looks like one would need at least one whole day to see it all, if not more! If I ever get that far west, I'm sooo visiting this place. Glad I stumbled onto this question.
http://www.balboapark.org/in-t...

Oooh, you are brave to walk anywhere near a swamp!! Eeek, snakes, gators!! I was chatting with a neighbor a week or so ago and told her about seeing a couple of snakes in the water behind our houses last year. One I googled and it was a non venomous Florida water snake but the other I couldn't see clearly enough to get an ID. She said she's lived here many, many years and never saw a snake in the water until recently .... a very large water moccasin!! Gators have been reported in the waterways in the neighborhood too but I've never seen one and hope that I never do. I see lots of fish, turtles and sometimes otters which is fine though.

Tiffany, If you ever get this far West, plan on at least 2 days. The park is outstanding and the San Diego is next door. They would each take a day to explore.

I told my husband yesterday that when we go back to San Diego next summer we must stay at least a week. This past summer we only went out for four days and some of that time was the flights out and back! Balboa Park is outstanding and one can easily spend an entire day there walking around and seeing things! I loved the Point Loma area too ... beautiful scenery out there. I didn't make it up to Encinitas to see the Botanical Gardens there but will definitely go the next time we are in the San Diego area!

@plantladylin,

You said..."Oooh, you are brave to walk anywhere near a swamp!! "

...then I must be totally insane as I went paddling in a canoe into the Okefenokee Swamp a few years ago. Boldly paddling without a guide and there are no road signs out there! I could see the eyes of the 'gators, hear their grunts, and occasionally the creepy, frightening sound of the little splash as they leave the bank and enter the water.

While I kept one eye out for danger I used the other eye to admire the water lilies.

@greene

Paddling the Okefenokee without a guide?? You are brave! The Okefenokee is a huge swamp with lots of gators and other critters but I guess many folks aren't afraid of doing things like that. Many people here in Florida like to go camping, fishing and boating in the Everglades where there are gators, huge pythons ... and who knows what other creatures in that swamp. People canoe and kayak in the rivers around here all the time, and the waters are full of gators. I'm not very adventurous I guess because it would scare me; I'd be worrying that a large gator would tip the canoe and I'd end up being dinner.

I am with you Lin, although my idea of roughing it has always been something like a 4 star hotel or better. I do think I am in the minority on that one.

Greene - you are braver than I am. Do you have any pictures of the waterlilies from your adventure? One thing I always liked was Spatterdock, which is native to my area. You probably don't have it in the South.

Carolyn: I prefer the 4 star hotel or better too.

Spatterdock, Yellow Pond-Lily (Nuphar advena) is a native here in Fla: http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/nod...

I love the swamps and marshes. Lots of interest flora and fauna, including gators and snakes. Paddling the Okefenokee would be fun, but I don't think I would do it without a GPS.