Nymphaea odorata Aiton ssp. tuberosa (Paine) Wiersema & Hellq.

tuberous white water lily

Lakes, ponds, and slow moving water of streams.

Herbaceous

Perennial

Vascular

5

NYFA 1990 lumped N. odorata ssp. tuberosa and ssp. odorata. We currently place the NYFA 1990 records of "Nymphaea odorata" under N. odorata ssp. odorata. So, the distribution in New York of N. odorata ssp. tuberosa is likely greater than what is currently displayed.

Authors have differed in their taxonomic opinion about the Nymphaea odorata-tuberosa complex. Wiersema and Hellquist (1994) distinguish these two taxa at the subspecific level (N. odorata ssp. odorata and N. odorata ssp. tuberosa) while past authors recognize them at the specific level (Conard 1905, Fernald 1950, Godfrey and Wooten 1981) or lump them entirely (Voss 1985, Gleason and Cronquist 1991). A recent study (Woods et al. 2005, 2005b) based on morphology and molecular work provides evidence that these two taxa are partially but perhaps not completely distinct. Therefore, these authors support a classification that recognizes these two taxa at the subspecific level. These authors found that many of the characters which had been used to distinguish these two taxa previously were not statistically different between the two. Some of the characters that they found to distinguish the two taxa best still have a lot of overlap. Unfortunately they did not provide a key. We provisionally follow their taxonomy and recognize N. odorata ssp. odorata and N. odorata ssp. tuberosa in New York with the caution that some individuals may not be identifiable to the subspecific level.

Native OBL (NWPL EMP) OBL (NWPL NCNE) S5? (State Rank) G5T5 (Global Rank)

Wiersema 1997, Woods et al. 2005, 2005b