Nymphaea hastifolia is a species of waterlily native to the Northern Territory, and Western Australia.
Nymphaea hastifolia is an annual or perennial aquatic herb with globose rhizomes. The elliptical floating leaves with sinuate margins are 20 cm long, and 15 cm wide. The adaxial leaf surface is green, but the abaxial leaf surface displays purple colouration.
The emergent flowers are white. The seeds are ellipsoid or globoid.
Flowering occurs from March to June.
It was first described by Karel Domin in 1925.
The type specimen was collected by Schultz in Port Darwin, Australia.
It is placed in Nymphaea subgenus Anecphya.
The specific epithet hastifolia is derived from hasta, meaning spear, and folium, meaning leaf. It means having spear-shaped leaves.
It is not threatened.
It occurs in lagoons, peat bogs, seasonally flooded grassland, ephemeral billabongs, creeks, and rivers.
The rhizome, roots, and seeds of Nymphaea hastifolia are used as food.