This plant is common in shallow lakes and ponds throughout temperate and tropical Asia: Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Yunnan, Taiwan, Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.

[citation needed] The hairy water lily is an aquatic plant having erect perennial rhizomes or rootstocks that anchor it to the mud in the bottom.

Its leave blades are round above the water and heart-shaped below 15–26(–50) cm, papery, abaxially densely pubescent.

Some of the leaves that emerge rise slightly above the water held by their stem in lotus fashion, but most of them just float on the surface.

This species of water lily has quite a few artificially raised varieties, in addition to many natural hybrids.