Water Lily Meaning: Purity of Heart in 1884, Rebirth in Egypt and How It Differs From the Lotus

Water lily meaning, in the 1884 flower dictionary of Kate Greenaway, is purity of heart, and in ancient Egypt the blue water lily (Nymphaea caerulea) was tied to the sun’s daily rebirth. A water lily is a plant of the genus Nymphaea, which belongs to the waterlily family, Nymphaeaceae. It is not a lotus, although the blue and white water lilies of Egypt are traditionally called lotuses. This guide sorts the water lily meanings that rest on a printed text from those that only guides repeat. It also covers the botany that separates a water lily from a lotus (Nelumbo), the national-flower claims checked country by country, and the coloured hybrids Monet painted at Giverny. For the wider system behind all of it, see our flower symbolism guide.

Every meaning below is tradition, not botany. Where a dated book or a museum says it, we name the source. Where only guides say it, we say that instead.

What does a water lily symbolize?

A water lily symbolizes purity, innocence and rebirth in modern guides. The Old Farmer’s Almanac says water lilies “traditionally symbolize purity, innocence, and chastity,” most notably the white variety. The same page says Buddhism and Hinduism read the flower as resurrection and rebirth because it opens and closes each day. The Almanac names no text for either reading. Our lotus flower meaning guide covers the Buddhist and Hindu symbolism in detail.

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The daily rhythm is real plant behaviour. The Flora of New Zealand describes the day-blooming species it covers as opening by day and closing at night for three or four consecutive days. After that, the flower stalk bends or coils and pulls the flower below the surface. The fruit then ripens and decays underwater. Tradition reads rebirth into that cycle.

The family name carries its own tradition. The Almanac says Nymphaeaceae is derived from the nymphs of Greek legend, who are water protectors.

How is a water lily different from a lotus?

A water lily differs from a lotus most clearly in the leaf. The New York Botanical Garden says a water lily has “a recognizable notch in each leaf.” NC State Extension says a lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) has leaf stalks that “attach at the middle of the leaf underside,” a layout botanists call peltate. The table sets out the other differences the sources give.

The leaf is the place to start. The notch and the stalk attachment are the two leaf features the sources give, and none of them adds an exception. Flower height has exceptions. NC State’s Nymphaea page says hardy water lily flowers appear to float, though some are held above the water. The NYBG says tropical water lilies carry the flower higher on longer stalks. NC State also says lotus blades “either float on the surface of the water, or are held up” to 5 feet. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden says lotuses stretch “a foot or so” above the water, so the heights quoted vary by source.

The University of Arizona’s Yavapai County plant guide gives the hardy, white form: floating leaves and floating, star-like flowers that close nightly. The petals confirm it. The NYBG says a water lily petal is pointed and a lotus petal is rounder.

The Egyptian “lotus” was a water lily, not the sacred lotus

The ancient Egyptian “lotus” was a water lily. The word lotus is Greek, and Willockx notes that very different plants have carried it. Sjef Willockx’s cultural history of ancient Egypt lists three aquatic lotuses known there. The white (Nymphaea lotus) and the blue (Nymphaea caerulea) were native. The pink, Nelumbo nucifera, was introduced from Asia, and most authorities date its arrival to the Late Period. So the Egyptian symbol and the sacred lotus of Asia are different plants, though both carry the name lotus.

The blue water lily carried the heavier symbolism. Willockx says its flower opens in the morning and closes at nightfall, which reminded the Egyptians of the sun’s rising and setting, and the cycle “came to be seen as a promise of rebirth.” He adds that the bud’s emergence from the water was an image of the sun god emerging from the primordial waters of Nun, and that one creation scene shows a young boy coming out of an opening blossom. The god Nefertem is shown with a large blue water lily on his head. A Pyramid Text has the king say: “I appear as Nefertem, as the lotus-bloom which is at the nose of Re.”

The funerary texts use it too. The Book of the Dead has two spells with the caption “Spell for being transformed into a lotus” (Spells 81A and 81B), and the picture for 81A shows the blue flower. According to UC Berkeley, researchers found blue lotus petals covering the body of Tutankhamun when they opened his tomb in 1922. The same release reports that scholars have long hypothesized that the flowers, soaked in wine, released psychedelic properties. It also reports a Berkeley student’s finding that the “blue lotus” advertised online is a different plant from the one used in ancient Egypt.

The white one had a lighter role. Willockx writes that the blue flower was deeply associated with the symbolic and the religious, while the white was mostly regarded as just a beautiful garden flower. The two also look different: the blue has straight, sharply pointed petals, and the white does not.

One popular claim fails against the script. Hunker’s GardenGuides says the water lily represented Upper Egypt and the papyrus Lower Egypt. Willockx’s section on the hieroglyphs points to Gardiner’s sign list, where papyrus stands for Lower Egypt but the lotus signs were not used for Upper Egypt. Upper Egypt is written with a sedge.

What did the Victorians say a water lily means?

Two Victorian flower dictionaries disagree about the water lily. Robert Tyas’s 1869 edition files the white water lily under eloquence. Kate Greenaway’s 1884 book gives purity of heart. The table shows the entries.

The meaning that modern guides treat as the water lily’s core, purity, appears in Greenaway’s vocabulary as “Purity of heart.” Tyas gives a different reason for his entry, and it is the Egyptian one. In his words, the Egyptians “consecrated the Nymphæa Lotus to the Sun, the god of Eloquence,” and the flowers “close at sunset and sink into the water; they rise with the god of day as he comes above the horizon.” He adds that the white water lily of Europe is “a lovely sister of the Egyptian Lotus.” So Tyas ties his eloquence to the Egyptian sun myth, the same daily rise and sink that Willockx reads as a promise of rebirth.

What does a water lily mean in love?

A water lily has no romantic meaning in either Victorian book. Greenaway’s only love entry in this family belongs to a different plant: the lotus flower, “Estranged love.” Love meanings for the water lily come from modern guides, and they most often attach to red. The Almanac says red water lilies mean passion and romance. GardenGuides says the red lily is “known for love, passion and wealth.” Neither guide names a dated text for the claim.

Water lily colour meanings

The only colour-by-colour meanings we found come from two guides, and they do not give sources. The Almanac lists meanings for five colours. GardenGuides gives red and purple, and its red differs in wording from the Almanac’s.

The Egyptian meaning is not a colour code. Willockx ties it to a species, Nymphaea caerulea, whose flowers are blue. Greenaway gives no colour, and Tyas names only the white one.

Which countries name the water lily a national flower?

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka name a water lily, and the sources disagree about the species in Bangladesh. Egypt and Iran are claimed by guides but are not confirmed here. The table checks each country against the best source we could open.

In Bangladesh the flower is on the national emblem. The Constitution describes it as resting on water, with an ear of paddy on each side, three connected jute leaves above and two stars on each side of the leaves. Banglapedia says Bangladesh has two species, N. nouchali (blue) and N. pubescens (white), and that the white one is “more frequent and popular” and “has been designated as the national flower.” Its emblem entry also writes Nymphaea pubescens. The constitutional text and the encyclopedia therefore name different species. Banglapedia gives no designation date.

Sri Lanka’s case is a mix-up. Botanist Deepthi Yakandawala of the University of Peradeniya told The Sunday Times in July 2023 that the Nil manel was declared the national flower in February 1986. The official picture showed a violet-coloured water lily, which the paper says may have been introduced and is neither endemic nor native. An expert committee later recommended Nymphaea nouchali Burm. f., “bluish variety,” as the national flower. The ministry planned a Cabinet paper for 31 July 2023 to reinstate the name. We could not confirm what happened to it.

For Egypt and Iran, A-Z Animals says the white Egyptian water lily is Egypt’s national flower and that the water lily is Iran’s national symbolic flower. We did not find a law or government page for either claim. The Almanac names only Bangladesh.

Monet’s water lilies were not the white lily of the dictionaries

Monet’s Giverny water lilies included coloured hybrids, not just the white lily of the flower dictionaries. The Art Institute of Chicago says Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac introduced the hybrids at the Paris World’s Fair of 1889, in blooms from pale to deep yellows and from pinks to darker reds. Until then, white water lilies had been standard fare in France for decades. In 1894, after finishing the water garden’s engineering, Monet placed his first order with the Latour-Marliac nursery. It included three water lilies: Nymphaea mexicana, bought as N. flava, ‘Laydekeri Rosea’ and ‘Odorata Sulphurea Grandiflora’. His 1904 order was exclusively for red water lilies.

The Musée de l’Orangerie counts almost 300 paintings, more than 40 of them large format, made from the late 1890s until Monet’s death in 1926. Two guides give lower counts: the Almanac says more than 200, and GardenGuides says about 250. The paintings were displayed at the Orangerie in 1927, a few months after his death. Eight compositions, each 1.97 m high, hang in two elliptical rooms.

Is the water lily a July birth flower, and what does a water lily tattoo mean?

The water lily is one of two July birth flowers, with larkspur. The Almanac says so directly. Our July birth flowers guide covers the gift occasions and a short growing section, so this page leaves them there.

Tattoo guides repeat the general meanings. StyleCraze says July birth flower tattoos represent purity, enlightenment, positivity, rebirth and transformation, and that the water lily “symbolizes purity, enlightenment, and the unfolding of one’s inner beauty.” It credits its designs to image generators. It names no source for any meaning. For a design, petal shape is the quick check. By the NYBG’s description, a pointed, star-like bloom is a water lily, and a rounder, sometimes ruffled petal is a lotus.

Growing a water lily

If you want the plant instead of the symbol, start with the type. NC State says most hardy water lilies are day-blooming, and tropical ones come in day-blooming and night-blooming forms. The NC State Plant Toolbox says night-blooming types open in the evening and close by mid to late morning. Our July birth flowers guide has a short section on growing one. For the largest member of the family, our giant water lily guide covers pond size and water temperature.

Frequently asked questions

What does a water lily symbolize?

Modern guides say purity, innocence and rebirth. Greenaway’s 1884 dictionary gives “Purity of heart,” and Tyas’s 1869 edition gives eloquence for the white water lily.

Is a water lily the same as a lotus?

No. A water lily (Nymphaea) has a notch in each leaf and is in the family Nymphaeaceae. A lotus (Nelumbo) has a round leaf joined at the middle and is in Nelumbonaceae. The blue and white Egyptian “lotuses” were water lilies.

What does a blue water lily mean?

In ancient Egypt the blue water lily, Nymphaea caerulea, was tied to the sun’s daily rebirth and to creation. Colour-meaning guides give blue the sense of calm and wisdom, but they cite no text.

What does a water lily mean in love?

Neither Tyas nor Greenaway gives it a romantic meaning. Modern guides link love mostly to red water lilies, without naming a dated text.

Is the water lily a national flower?

Bangladesh names the shapla on its emblem, and Sri Lanka declared the Nil manel its national flower in 1986. Egypt and Iran are claimed by guides, and we found no government source for either.

What does a water lily tattoo mean?

Tattoo guides say purity, enlightenment and rebirth. The one we read, StyleCraze, cites no source for the meanings.

Is the water lily a July birth flower?

Yes. The Old Farmer’s Almanac lists larkspur and the water lily as the two July birth flowers.

Sources

1. Greenaway, Kate. The Language of Flowers, 1884. Project Gutenberg #31591 (linked in text)
2. Tyas, Robert. The Language of Flowers, 1869 edition. Internet Archive (linked in text)
3. The Old Farmer’s Almanac. July Birth Flowers: Larkspur and Water Lily, 19 June 2026 (linked in text)
4. Hunker / GardenGuides. What Do Water Lilies Symbolize? Dec 2022 (linked in text)
5. NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox. Nymphaea (linked in text)
6. NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox. Nelumbo nucifera (linked in text)
7. New York Botanical Garden LibGuides. Water lilies (linked in text)
8. Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Lovely lotuses (linked in text)
9. Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research. Flora of New Zealand, Nymphaea (linked in text)
10. University of Arizona Cooperative Extension. Yavapai County Native and Naturalized Plants, Nymphaea odorata (linked in text)
11. Willockx, Sjef. Ancient Egypt: Elements of its Cultural History, Lotus and papyrus, sections 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 (linked in text)
12. UC Berkeley Letters and Science. Investigating the psychedelic blue lotus of Egypt, 11 March 2025 (linked in text)
13. Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Article 4. Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs (linked in text)
14. Banglapedia. Water Lily (linked in text)
15. Banglapedia. National Emblem (linked in text)
16. Hettiarachchi, Kumudini. Finally, Nil Manel wins battle with imposter. The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka, 23 July 2023 (linked in text)
17. A-Z Animals. Water Lily Meaning, Symbolism, and Proper Occasions (linked in text)
18. Art Institute of Chicago. The Real Water Lilies of Giverny (linked in text)
19. Musée de l’Orangerie. History of the Water Lilies cycle (linked in text)
20. StyleCraze. July Birth Flower Tattoo: 8 Unique Design Ideas and Symbolism (linked in text)