Blue water lilies (Nymphaea nouchali)

The blue water lily is a captivating flower to see in the slow-moving rivers and pans of the Lowveld. Contrasting with the harshness of both the environment and the animals at times, the delicate water lilies create a surreal image of tranquillity.

But if you look beyond the sky-blue petals, you find a bizarre pollination strategy. When the flowers first open and some stamens are bent in the middle, the flower is in its male phase, allowing insects to visit safely. The next day, the flower opens again, but this time the stamens are fully bent back, revealing a pool of liquid at the centre. At this stage, if an insect enters to collect pollen, the slippery stamens cause it to slip into the liquid. The flower then closes around the insect, which often drowns. Despite this, the flower is not carnivorous—its purpose is not to consume the insect. Instead, the pollen that the insect had collected from other flowers is washed off the insect as it drowns.

Once the hapless insect’s pollen has been collected by the flower’s inner surfaces, the blossom reopens and releases the dead or alive insect. It’s a hauntingly efficient system—one that ensures cross-pollination while highlighting nature’s often ruthless ingenuity.

This strange dynamic between beauty and brutality is part of what makes the blue water lily so intriguing. It reminds us that nature is rarely as gentle as it appears. Even in a serene wetland scene amongst the delicate lilies, evolutionary strategies play out with quiet, calculated precision.

The water lily doesn’t just survive in the Lowveld—it thrives, by turning even a fleeting visitor into a vessel for life’s continuity.