Victoria Water Lilies (Victoria spp.)

Flower Field, Flower Dome, Waterlily Pond

Deep in the forests and floodplains, floating on the warm, still waters of rivers in tropical South America live three Victoria water lily species (Victoria amazonica, V. cruziana, and V. boliviana). Famous for their leaves, which can grow 2-3m in diameter, a single plant can cover over 1500 sq. feet – that’s about the area of a three to four bedroom HDB apartment!

Known to the Guarani people of Paraguay as irupé – “water platter” – their origin folktale of Victoria cruziana is that of a beautiful maiden who fell in love with the reflection of the moon in a lake and drowned trying to reach it. The gods took pity on her, transforming her into a majestic aquatic plant whose night blooming flowers gazed up at the sky and whose high-rimmed, circular leaves resembled the full moon.

British explorers, astonished by the giant leaves and intricate, night-blooming flowers, named an even larger species Victoria regia (later renamed V. amazonica) to honour the newly crowned Queen Victoria in 1837.  After seeds of V. amazonica British gardener and architect Joseph Paxton first successfully coaxed a plant of Victoria amazonica to flower in 1849, grown in his custom-designed, indoor, heated pond at Chatsworth House. Inspired by the natural engineering of intricately branched, air-filled girders that support the leaves’ huge width – and weights over 80kg - Paxton adopted the cross-braced system to support the cast iron and glass structure of the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London’s Hyde Park. Reconstructed at Sydenham, the Crystal Palace was the first glasshouse to showcase Victoria water lilies in an Ancient Egypt-themed display - not Gardens by the Bay’s 2026 Lilytopia display!

Victoria water lilies are famous for their giant leaves, but their night-blooming flowers are equally amazing! Each 20 to 30cm flower lasts only 48 hours, slowly opening at sunset and closing by day in an intricate dance with their scarab beetle pollinators.

On the first night, the flower opens with bright white petals, a pineapple-like scent, and a high metabolic rate, warming the air in the stigmatic chamber by up to 5°C! Its colour, scent, and heat attract scarab beetles which bring pollen from other plants, feed on the inner flower parts, and mate.
Closing the following morning with well-fed beetles still inside, the flower turns off the heat and becomes pink, making it less visible and attractive at night.  On the second night, it reopens, shedding its own pollen over the beetles as they fly out to other flowers. 

Our Ancient Egypt-themed Lilytopia display brings together several species in the water lily family (Nymphaeaceae), described below, in an amazing showcase of diversity. The original "lotus" of Egyptian art, culture, and religion is modelled on two native species, the day-blooming blue water lily (Nymphaea nouchali var. caerulea) and night-blooming white water lily (Nymphaea lotus), recorded as early as 2400 BCE.

The true lotus (Nelumbo nucifera), a member of a different family, the lotus family (Nelumbonaceae) arrived much later during Persian rule in the 5th–6th centuries BCE. While the Victoria water lilies originated in not in the Nile River, but in and around the Amazon River basin in tropical South America, as the largest species in the water lily family, their impressive plant and leaf size quite befits the grandeur of Ancient Egyptian architecture in our display!      

The Victoria cruziana and V. amazonica water lilies in this Lilytopia display are quite special in that we grew them ourselves in an exhausting but rewarding process that took 1.5 years and two generations of plants. Not to mention countless late nights hand-pollinating plants with a headlamp, forceps and utility knife, while trying to avoid getting poked by the prickles all over the stems, leaves, and even flowers of the plants!

Now, having collected over 1,200 pure bred, hybrid, and naturally pollinated seed, we’ve also produced enough plants not just for the Lilytopia display but to repopulate our outdoor lakes and ponds and share with other gardens as well!      

How did we get such huge plants into the Flower Dome from their outdoor nursery pools? Using a unique contraption designed to support the prickly plants with minimal damage to both plants and people alike!  Edwin Ong, Senior Technical Specialist from Garden Operations, shown here driving the forklift, designed and built this modular platform and leaf support system to carefully support the delicate, prickly leaves and heavy root ball of each individual Victoria plant on its way to the Flower Dome. 

Visit our Victoria water lilies in our ongoing Lilytopia display from now to 27 September, 2026. Marvel at the size of their leaves, test your newfound ability to tell them apart from lotus and other waterlilies, and see if you are lucky enough to catch one in bloom after dark! Then, go outside and see if you can find more plants around our outdoor gardens, in Waterlily Pond, Dragonfly Lake, and Serene Garden.  

This article is part of our What's Blooming series.