Nymphaea ondinea is an aquatic plant in the family Nymphaeaceae native to northwestern Australia.
It is a perennial, tuberous plant with 1âÂÂ6 oblong, 1.5âÂÂ2.5 cm long, and 1âÂÂ2 cm wide tubers. The contractile roots are 1âÂÂ1.5 mm wide. The plant has floating or submerged leaves. The submerged leaves with undulate leaf margins are 6âÂÂ24 cm long. The upper surface of the submerged leaves is green, and the lower surface is dark blue. The floating leaves are 7 cm long, and 2 cm wide.
The pink to purple, solitary flower with a terete, 3âÂÂ6 mm peduncle emerges up to 10âÂÂ20 cm above water surface. The flowers have four 9âÂÂ33 mm long sepals. The petals can be absent or present. The androeceum consists of 15âÂÂ34 stamens. The gynoecium consists of 3âÂÂ14 carpels.
It was first collected in 1921 by Charles Gardner, but it was not then seen to be a new species. It was first published as Ondinea purpurea Hartog by in 1970. It was transferred to the genus Nymphaea L. as Nymphaea ondinea Löhne, Wiersema & Borsch published by Cornelia Löhne, John Harry Wiersema, and Thomas Borsch in 2009 (the option of retaining the same epithet, as Nymphaea purpurea, was not available, as this combination had been used before for another species). The type specimen was collected by W. Leutert North-East of Kalimburu, Kimberley district, Western Australia on the 15th of April 1968. It is placed in Nymphaea subg. Anecphya.
The species name ondinea is derived from the name of the water nymph in the 1958 ballet Ondine.
It occurs in sandstone streams.
Nymphaea ondinea is not threatened. However, its subspecies Nymphaea ondinea subsp. petaloidea is classified as a Priority 1: Poorly-known species under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016.
The attempts to grow Nymphaea ondinea have been met with low levels of success.