• Giant water platter in a river habitat in northeastern Brazil.Jeremy Woodhouse/Digital Vision/Getty Images
  
  Typically called giant water lilies or water platters, members of the botanical genus Victoria gained fame because of their large leaves, measuring up to 8 feet in diameter. According to American water lily expert Perry L. Slocum, these leaves support the weight of a full-grown person if his weight is evenly distributed on a plywood disk atop the floating leaf. Moreover, Edgar Anderson wrote in an account for the Missouri Botanical Garden that sandbags weighing 300 lbs. didn't sink the leaves of the giant water lily's pad. These tropical plants neither tolerate frosts nor survive in water temperatures below 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
  
  

Giant Waterlily

• Young leaves are red but mature to a yellow-green color.victoria amazonica image by Unclesam from Fotolia.com
  
  Giant water lily or Amazon water lily (Victoria amazonica) hails from the warmest waters of the Amazon River in Brazil, Guiana and Bolivia. Each leaf pad displays a medium green color with low edge curling up to form a ring and exposing the reddish purple underside. Sharp spines line the branching, air-filled veins on the leaf underside. Smallest when first emerging, a leaf matures to a typical diameter of 4 to 6 feet, although 8-foot leaves occur. Slocum comments that this species needs water temperatures of 85 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit and fertile soil to grow most robustly. A pond with ample room is also required, as the plant's many leaves spread at least 15 feet in diameter from the submerged roots. The white flowers measure up to 16 inches in size and open at night.
  
  

Santa Cruz Waterlily

• Resembling the giant water lily, the Santa Cruz water lily (Victoria cruziana) is native to the slightly cooler tropical waters in Paraguay, Bolivia and northern Argentina. The yellow-green leaves measure 4 to 5 1/2 feet in mature diameter but the curled edges create a rim that sticks up much higher in the water than the giant water lily's leaves. Santa Cruz water lily leaf undersides display a more intense violet-purple hue, according to Slocum. It also prospers and grows to full size in cooler water temperatures, around 75 to 90 degrees, but tolerates water as chilly as 65 to 70 degrees. The plant's white, night-opening flower measures 10 inches in diameter. The spread of all plant leaves measures 15 to 18 feet wide in a large pond.
  
  

Longwood Hybrid Waterlily

• A man-made hybrid created in 1960 by Patrick Nutt at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Penn., the Longwood Hybrid (Victoria "Longwood Hybrid") has the giant water lily and the Santa Cruz water lily as its genetic parents. Thus, it displays the features of both plants but produces more flowers and in less time than either according to Slocum. It needs water temperatures of 70 degrees or warmer to grow well and spreads its many leaves from 12 to 40 feet wide across a warm pond. Individual leaves measure 4 to 8 feet in diameter. The yellow-green leaf displays a red line on the edge and rim on the water surface, and its undersides are spiny and purplish.
  
  

Other Hybrids

• Flowers of Victoria lilies are white but age to pinkish in color.Waterlily image by Arne Bramsen from Fotolia.com
  
  While the "Longwood Hybrid" developed from a cross that had the giant water lily as the male, pollen-supplying parent and Santa Cruz water lily as the female, ovary-supplying mother plant, other horticulturists created hybrid plants, too. Slocum gives recognition to Kit and Ben Knots of Florida and Joe Summers of the Missouri Botanical Garden as creating other massive-leaved hybrid Victoria water lilies. Some cultivars names of these hybrids include "Adventure," "Discovery," "Challenger" and "Atlantis." These plants' mature sizes, leaf colors and rim sizes differ slightly, and some bloom at times other than night.