[2] Nymphaea alexii is an annual or perennial plant with 2 cm wide, globose rhizomes.

The 4.5 cm wide, globose fruit bears elongate, glabrous, longitudinally ridged, 1-2 mm long seeds.

[3] It was first described by Surrey Wilfrid Laurance Jacobs and Carl Barre Hellquist in 2006.

[2][4] The type specimen was collected by Jacobs and Hellquist in Queensland, Australia on the 17th of April 2005.

[3][5] Nymphaea alexii is named after Alex James Fussell, the grandson of Surrey Wilfrid Laurance Jacobs.