Collected 1770: Endeavour River

Observed 2019: Brisbane Botanic Gardens

The artist depicts the long, pointed bracts that enclose each flower and the following woolly seed pods. As the stem spike grows and the buds mature, these bracts reflex, opening the flower inside and subtending it, holding its delicate yellow ‘petals’ on display.

Woolly waterlily is an aquatic clumping plant with lime green, soft, spongy, upright foliage.

Indigenous peoples make a decoction of the plant’s aerial parts for medicinal use as a body wash for itchy skin conditions. Children make whistles from the folded leaves.