It can be found across northern North America in ponds and slow moving streams.

They are radially symmetric with prominent yellow stamens and many white petals.

[7] Today they are recognized as a distinct but form section Chamaenyphaea of the subgenera Nymphaea.

[7] The specific epithet leibergii honours the Swedish-American botanist, forester, and plant collector John Bernhard Leiberg (1853-1913),[8] who discovered the plant in the late 1800s.

Its habitats include ponds, shallow lakes, slow-moving streams, and edges of slow, open water channels through marshes, up to a depth of approximately 2 m (6.6 ft).