This lifeform is found east of the Continental Divide in North America. The yellow color will help identify this lifeform. This lifeform is found in freshwater such as lakes or rivers. This lifeform is widespread, but not common.

Large yellow pond lily (Nuphar advena) is found from Labrador and Nova Scotia west to the Rocky Mountains, and south to Florida, Texas, and Utah. However, if you divide the North American representatives of this genus into several species this is a southern species. This southern form is found as far North as southern Wisconsin, and south to Florida and Texas. In the Chicago area, this plant grows on the inland lake shores. The leaves are held above the water level.

Nuphar genus (yellow pond lily) is native to the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.  There are about 25 perennial aquatic herbs in this genus.  They have large floating cordate-shaped leaves and yellow flowers.  Until recently,  various  North American forms were given full species status.  However, recently these forms were  combined into a single species.  Consequently, there is now only one species (Nuphar lutea) and seven subspecies found in North America.  However, they are retained here as different species.

Water Lily Family (Nymphaceaceae) are a distinctive group of plants usually characterized by floating leaves and large exotic flowers. The 90 species are limited to freshwater and most regions of the earth have their representative species. The water lily family has two genera with 13 species growing in greater North America.

Ranales Order has been broken down into nineteen different  families. The water lilies, buttercups, magnolias, and other groups are included in this order. Large pretty flowers seem to be a common characteristic of this order.

Dicots (Dicotyledoneae Class) are the predominant group of vascular plants on earth. With the exception of the grasses (Monocots) and the Conifers (Gymnosperms), most of the larger plants that one encounters are  Dicots. Dicots are characterized by having a seed with two outer shell coverings. Some of the more primitive Dicots are the typical hardwood trees (oaks, birches, hickories, etc). The more advanced Dicots include many of the Composite Family flowers like the  Dandelion, Aster, Thistles, and Sunflowers. Although many Monocots reach a very high degree of specialization, most botanists feel that the Dicots represent the most advanced group of plants.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands).

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.

Plant kingdom contains a large variety of different organisms including mosses, ferns, and seed plants. Most plants manufacture their energy from sunlight and water. Identification of many species is difficult in that most individual plants have characteristics that have variables based on soil moisture, soil chemistry, and sunlight.

Because of the difficulty in learning and identifying different plant groups, specialists have emerged that study only a limited group of plants. These specialists revise the taxonomy and give us detailed descriptions and ranges of the various species.  Their results are published in technical journals and written with highly specialized words that apply to a specific group.

On the other hand, there are the nature publishers. These people and companies undertake the challenging task of trying to provide easy to use pictures and descriptions to identify those species.