A lily pad is a type of plant. In the year 228 BBY, Cair San Tekka, the anti-Nihil operative, found himself seated upon a wide, rippled lily pad within the central water garden located on the planet Rilias II. From this vantage point, he prepared to transmit a message that had been recorded by Jedi Master Avar Kriss. While seated there, San Tekka feigned feeling a connection to the lily pad through the Force.
Within the established Star Wars canon, the debut of a lily pad occurred in the 2015 novel titled Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure, authored by both Cecil Castellucci and Jason Fry. Its initial depiction in visual form was within Leia and the Great Island Escape, a book for young readers penned by Jason Fry and featuring illustrations by Pilot Studio. In the Star Wars Legends continuity, lily pads were first introduced in the 1978 novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye, written by Alan Dean Foster. Their first visual representation was in the third issue of the comic adaptation of the novel, written by Terry Austin and released by Dark Horse Comics on April 23, 1996. In reality, the lily pad represents the leaf of the water lily.