Macro Monday: Colorado Lily – Pale Late Bloomer

We’ll if you saw my post on January 3, 2011 about a late bud from my Colorado Water Lily – you would have thought it was about to bloom. Sadly it never opened…. until yesterday. January’s weather has been cold here in Houston and I believe the temperatures preserved the bloom, but oddly it took my separating the sepals Saturday to see what was inside that caused it to bloom.

Saturday January 29, 2011 I noticed the bud still looked about the same as it did four weeks earlier. It appears a small caterpillar or snail had been munching on the sepal, but overall it looked the same. I did see the tip appeared to be opening and a pale green extension of the petals were shown. I separated the sepals to look inside and found white petals. Now if you have seen a Colorado Lily bloom, you know it has a salmon color flower… a delicate mix of apricot and pink as shown below.

To my surprise when I walked up the driveway yesterday, I saw a beautiful delicate soft white flower blooming. Apparently the separating the sepals encouraged the bud to open and bloom. The weather was warm yesterday… in the 60’s here.

This flower is beautiful and reminds me of Nymphaea odorata (White Water Lily) or Nymphaea Virginia. I may even prefer it more than the salmon color, but I doubt I will see this one again. It was strange turn of events that created this flower and thankfully I was able to capture these lovely photos to enjoy.