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Nymphaea mexicana is a species of aquatic plant that is native to the Southern United States and Mexico as far south as Michoacán. Common names include yellow water lily, Mexican water lily and banana water lily.
Nymphaea mexicana is a rhizomatous, aquatic, perennial herb with stoloniferous, up to 30 cm long, and 4 cm wide rhizomes. The rhizomes bear leaf and root scars. The stolons are 15–100 cm long, and 0.5–1 cm wide. The ovate, suborbicular, or elliptic lamina is 7–18(–27) cm long, and 7–14(–18) cm wide. The long, cylindrical petiole is glabrous.
The floating or emersed, yellow, 6–13 cm wide flowers have peduncles with 4 primary air canals. The flowers have four sepals and 12-30 yellow petals. The androeceum consists of 50 stamens. The gynoecium consists of 7-10 carpels. The spheroid or ovoid fruit bears 3–5 mm long, and 3–5 mm wide seeds with hairlike papillae. Tuberiferous flowers or proliferating pseudanthia can be present.
The chromosome count is n = 28. The genome size is 586.80 Mb. The chloroplast genome is 159962 bp long.
Nymphaea mexicana reproduces vegetatively through stolons. Their structure, resembling bananas, consists of leaf buds and thick, starchy roots. Additionally, tuberiferous flowers or proliferating pseudanthia can be present.
It occurs in up to 4 m deep water in lagoons, canals swamps, and rivers. It can occur in brackish water.
