Nymphaeaceae

In botany, Nymphaeaceae is the name of a family of plants which grow in water. The family is also called water-lily family.

Their flowers suggest they are one of the earliest groups of angiosperms.Les, Donald H. et al 1999. Phylogeny, classification and floral evolution of water lilies (Nymphaeaceae; Nymphaeales): a synthesis of non-molecular, rbcL, matK, and 18S rDNA Data. Systematic Botany 24 (1) 28-46. Modern genetic analyses by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group researchers has confirmed its basal position among flowering plants. 

Also, the Nymphaeaceae are more diverse and wdespread than other basal angiosperms.Coiro, Mario & Maria Rosaria Barone Lumaga 2013. Aperture evolution in Nymphaeaceae: insights from a micromorphological and ultrastructural investigation, Grana, DOI:10.1080/00173134.2013.769626Pellicer, Jaume et al 2013. Insights into the dynamics of genome size and chromosome evolution in the early diverging angiosperm lineage Nymphaeales (water lilies). Genome. 10.1139/gen-2013-0039 Nymphaeaceae is in the order Nymphaeales. According to the most widely accepted flowering plant classification system, this is the second diverging group of angiosperms after Amborella.

 References 

Category:Plant families
Category:Nymphaeales