The beauty of water lilies is most closely associated with French Impressionist artist Claude Monet. From the late 1890s to his death in 1926, Monet created nearly 250 oil paintings of the many moods and changing light of the water lily pond in his garden. Water lilies have also captivated botanists, whose pressed plant specimens are preserved in herbarium collections around the world. Since I have neither pond nor oils nor pretense of becoming an Impressionist painter, I was drawn instead to the dried form of Nymphaea odorata, the white water lily…. Read More