# Lily - identification needed



## vizion (Sep 12, 2010)

Hi 

I am new to this forum and originally posted this in the wrong section - apologies.

Can anyone identify this unusual lily. I photographed it in Tenerife with some difficulty. The water was very deep! As you can see the photo is of a leaf bud and an opening flower bud. The leafbud has spines which can also be seen on the mature leaf which is out of focus in the background.

Thanks in advance

david

PS It looks rather like a giant amazonia but I am doubtful whether the colours are right for that or how similar the flower is. Also the leaves, although large do not seem to be large enough! The flower bud is quite substantial as you can see from the photo.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

It looks like the giant amazon water lily, _Victoria regia_. Perhaps it is not as large as it normally gets in the tropics because of the shorter growing season in Spain. It is probably started from seed each year.


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

Do You have pics from fully developed leaves? 
There are 2 Victoria species: Victoria amazonica and V. cruziana, and some hybrid cultivars. Some differences are described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_(waterlily)
http://www.virtualherbarium.org/GardenViews/victoriaamazonica.html


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