Water Gardening: What is this in my waterlilies?, 0 by dahos77

dahos77 wrote:
Becky, that is definitely not mexicana. Mexican has lightly mottled leaves with red undersides and a completely yellow flower. Unlike other lilies, it grows a runner from each plant that will plunge into the soil and then turn up allowing another plant to grow. It'll keep chaining plants together as long as there is space for it to keep spreading out. For whatever reason, you'll get those banana like roots which can also make new plants. The first picture you had of the roots was definitely mexicana. The photos of your current water garden are of another variety.

With the hardys that I've seen, most have a distinct rhizome that creeps along the bottom with new plants making more tubers off the main one, whereas tropicals grow vertically with their tuber growing below the crown.

I've attached a photo of the mexicana flower. It doesn't bloom very often for me, but I'm not too good with hardys.

Thankfully, don't have predatory waterbirds here.