Fragrant Water Lily

I was recently given a fragrant water lily (or white water lily) from my grandson, who picked it out of our lake. They float on our lake, and you see them in several areas. The leaves and the flowers float on the surface of the lake, and the roots reach down into the soil. Usually the water isn't very deep where they are. The flowers open during the morning and early afternoon, and close up for the night.

 Some of the things I learned while checking for information were quite interesting. You can eat the flowers, leaves, and ripe seeds when they are raw. I'm not sure that I want to try them or serve them in my home, but this is what http://northernbushcraft.com stated. They also say that the flowerbuds can be cooked, and the rhizome (roots) can be boiled or roasted. I don't think I realized we had such a garden out in our lake.

A close up shows the yellow centre, which really adds to the look of the flower.

The next two pictures were taken with my 50 mm lens, as I'm still learning to use it. It gives a much smaller DOF (Depth of Field), which can make the picture look interesting. All of these were taken outside with natural light. They were not taken in the lake - I used a couple of different containers when taking the photos.