I've mentioned
Nymphoides a couple of times (it's not the same as the lotus or water lily
Nenuphar, Nuphar or
Nymphaea and is small compared to what most people call water lilies) and I found an example of the
Nymphoides aquatica rhizome. It doesn't show the new growth, but it does show the leaf scars:
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The VMS flower:
Now look at the flowers of You are not allowed to view links.
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Good match in many respects, moreso than the traditional lotus or water lily which is larger and has spikier petals or much rounder petals, depending on the species.
Nymphoides has the correct rhizome structure, leaf, and lightly fringed white or yellow petals (the petals are variable textures but most are lightly fringed). But...
Nymphoides (and its relative in the Gulf area
Villarsia humboldtiana that has a protruding style) does not have this calyx structure. The calyx is longer and spikier and not thickened and the style is not hirsute, even in
Villarsia.
It's one of those, so-close-and-yet-so-far situations which is why I like to retain plants like
Asarum and You are not allowed to view links.
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Parnassia species have a thickened calyx (but not a knob) and a protruding style (but not hirsute). The annual
Parnassia do not have rhizomes, but the perennial species do and a couple of them have reniform leaves.
Many plants (like terrestrial lilies) have protruding stamens (like the example René posted), but protruding styles (especially hirsute ones) are not common on reniform plants and the previously mentioned hibiscus and malva, which do have hirsute styles, don't typically have kidney-shaped leaves and this kind of rhizome.
Okay, so how's this for one possible explanation for the seeming disjunct between the flower and the rest of the plant...
Some of you have noticed that the same flower occurs a few folios later on a different plant.
This thought crossed my mind when I began to realize at least some of the VMS plants appear to be drawn from herbarium (flattened) specimens...
Plant 2v does resemble You are not allowed to view links.
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1) If you look at
A. europeum flowers they are distinctive, quite thick, and they have a narrow waist and a bump below the area usually associated with the calyx (similar to the VMS calyx).
2) In herbarium specimens, petals sometimes disintegrate when they dry—they are fragile.
Is it possible the illustrator worked from a dry specimen and thought the little jug-shaped Asarum flower was the calyx and "invented" the missing petals? I'm not proposing this as a theory. I'm just putting the idea out there as food for thought.