Chenshan Botanical Garden is home to nearly 1,000 giant water lilies. Besides using them to decorate the garden, they have sent some as presents to other parks in Shanghai.
The giant water lily was introduced to China in 1959 from Germany and has been recognized as the favorite plant for the greening and decorating of lakes and rivers. The flower is white at first, but the color changes to a pinkish-purple when it is pollinated. But what some consider most captivating is the large leaves it produces.
There are mainly three types of giant water lilies in the garden. One type, the Victoria amzonica, tends to have larger and redder pads with flat leaves. Another, Victoria cruziana, has smaller and greener pads with higher leave edges of 3 to 5 centimeters tall.
The third type, Victoria Longwood Hybrid, is a cross of the former two species with the cruziana as the pod parent and the amazonica as the pollen parent. It possesses the best attributes of both parents – large pads with nice leaf rims higher than 2 cm and a reddish edge.
Edited by Fu Bo and Chris Clark
 |
| Giant water lilies gifted to Shanghai parks |
