| Nymphaea lotus | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Order: | Nymphaeales |
| Family: | Nymphaeaceae |
| Genus: | Nymphaea |
| Species: | N. lotus |
| Binomial name | |
| Nymphaea lotus | |
| Varieties [2] | |
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| Synonyms [3] [4] | |
Nymphaea dentata Schumach. Contents | |
Nymphaea lotus, the white Egyptian lotus, tiger lotus, white lotus, or Egyptian water-lily, [3] is a flowering plant of the family Nymphaeaceae.
It grows in various parts of East Africa and Southeast Asia. Nymphaea lotus var. thermalis was believed to be a Tertiary relict variety endemic to the thermal waters of Europe, for example, the Peţa River in Romania or Lake Hévíz in Hungary. DNA analysis has concluded that Nymphaea lotus var. thermalis lacks distinctiveness from Nymphaea lotus and therefore cannot be classified as a relic population. [5]
It was introduced into Western cultivation in 1802 by Loddiges Nursery. Eduard Ortgies crossed Nymphaea lotus (N. dentata) with Nymphaea pubescens (N. rubra) to produce the first Nymphaea hybrid, illustrated in Flore des serres 8 t. 775, 776 under the name Nymphaea ortgiesiano-rubra. It is a popular ornamental aquatic plant in Venezuela.[ citation needed ]
This species of water lily has lily pads that float on the water and blossoms that rise above the water.[ citation needed ]
It is a perennial, growing to 45 cm in height. The flower is white, sometimes tinged with pink.[ citation needed ]
It is found in ponds and prefers clear, warm, still, and slightly acidic waters. It can be found in association with other aquatic plant species, such as Utricularia stellaris.
Nymphaea lotus has the exceptional ability to persist through a dry season with rhizomes. It possesses the ability to reduce evaporation by up to 18 percent on most of the days during the summer period. [6]
Nymphaea lotus is often used as a freshwater aquarium plant. In ornamental garden pools and in greenhouse culture, it is grown for its flowers, which do not normally appear under aquarium conditions. Aquarists prefer to trim the floating lily pads and just maintain the underwater foliage. Strong light is required for a deep reddish color in the "red" forms.[ citation needed ]
The tiger-like variegations appear under intense illumination.[ citation needed ]
In ancient times, the Egyptian lotus was worshipped, especially in Egypt. It was considered a symbol of creation there. In Ancient Greece, it was a symbol of innocence and modesty.[ citation needed ]
The Egyptian lotus is the national flower of Egypt. [7]
Claire Waight Keller included the flower to represent Malawi in Meghan Markle's wedding veil, which included the distinctive flora of each Commonwealth country. [8]
In some parts of Africa, the rhizomes and tubers are eaten for the starch they contain either boiled, roasted, or ground into flour after drying. The young fruits are sometimes consumed as a salad. The seeds are turned into a meal.[ citation needed ]
The tubers or seeds are used as a famine food in India. [9]
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The ancient Egyptians cultivated the white lotus in ponds and marshes.
This flower often appears in ancient Egyptian decorations. They believed that the lotus flower gave them strength and power; remains of the flower have been found in the burial tomb of Ramesses II. Egyptian tomb paintings from around 1500 BC provide some of the earliest physical evidence of ornamental horticulture and landscape design; they depict lotus ponds surrounded by symmetrical rows of acacias and palms. In Egyptian mythology, Horus was occasionally shown in art as a naked boy with a finger in his mouth sitting on a lotus with his mother. The lotus was one of the two earliest Egyptian capitals motifs, the topmost members of a column. At that time, the motifs of importance are those based on the lotus and papyrus plants respectively, and these, with the palm tree capital, were the chief types employed by the Egyptians, until under the Ptolemies in the 3rd to 1st centuries BC, various other river plants were also employed, and the conventional lotus capital went through various modifications. Women often wore amulets during childbirth that depicted Heqet as a frog, sitting in a lotus.
The number 1,000 in ancient Egyptian numerals is represented by the symbol of the white lotus. The related hieroglyph is:
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The ancient Egyptians also extracted perfume from this flower. They also used the white lotus in funerary garlands, temple offerings and female adornment.
The white lotus is a candidate for the plant eaten by the Lotophagi of Homer's Odyssey.
Though the plant contains a quinolizidine alkaloid, nupharin, and related chemicals, either described according to sources as poisonous, intoxicating or without effects, it seems to have been consumed since antiquity. The effects of the alkaloids could be those of a psychedelic aphrodisiac, though these effects are more those encountered in Nymphaea caerulea , the blue Egyptian water lily.[ citation needed ]
The chloroform, ethyl acetate and n-butanol extracts of the leaf shows the presence of phenolic compounds (flavonoids, coumarins and tannins), sterols and alkaloids.[ citation needed ]
Other compounds include myricitrin, myricetin-3-(6′′-p-coumaroylglucoside), myricetin-3′-O-(6′′-p-coumaroyl)glucoside and two epimeric macrocyclic derivatives, nympholide A and B, [10] myricetin-3-O-rhamnoside and penta-O-galloyl-β-D-glucose. [11]
Nymphaeaceae is a family of flowering plants, commonly called water lilies. They live as rhizomatous aquatic herbs in temperate and tropical climates around the world. The family contains five genera with about 70 known species. Water lilies are rooted in soil in bodies of water, with leaves and flowers floating on or emergent from the surface. Leaves are round, with a radial notch in Nymphaea and Nuphar, but fully circular in Victoria and Euryale.
In Greek mythology, the lotus-eaters were a race of people living on an island dominated by the lotus tree, a plant whose botanical identity is uncertain. The lotus fruits and flowers were the primary food of the island and were a narcotic, causing the inhabitants to sleep in peaceful apathy. After they ate the lotus, they would forget their home and loved ones and long only to stay with their fellow lotus-eaters. Those who ate the plant never cared to report or return.
Nymphaea is a genus of hardy and tender aquatic plants in the family Nymphaeaceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution. Many species are cultivated as ornamental plants, and many cultivars have been bred. Some taxa occur as introduced species where they are not native, and some are weeds. Plants of the genus are known commonly as water lilies, or waterlilies in the United Kingdom. The genus name is from the Greek νυμφαία, nymphaia and the Latin nymphaea, which mean "water lily" and were inspired by the nymphs of Greek and Latin mythology.
Nymphaea alba, the white waterlily, European white water lily or white nenuphar, is an aquatic flowering plant in the family Nymphaeaceae. It is native to North Africa, temperate Asia, Europe and tropical Asia.
Nelumbo nucifera, also known as sacred lotus, Indian lotus, or simply lotus, is one of two extant species of aquatic plant in the family Nelumbonaceae. It is sometimes colloquially called a water lily, though this more often refers to members of the family Nymphaeaceae.
Nymphaea nouchali var. caerulea, is a water lily in the genus Nymphaea, a botanical variety of Nymphaea nouchali.
Nuphar is a genus of aquatic plants in the family Nymphaeaceae, with a temperate to subarctic Northern Hemisphere distribution. Common names include water-lily, pond-lily, alligator-bonnet or bonnet lily, and spatterdock.
Nuphar lutea, the yellow water-lily, brandy-bottle, or spadderdock, is an aquatic plant of the family Nymphaeaceae, native to northern temperate and some subtropical regions of Europe, northwest Africa, western Asia, North America, and Cuba. This interesting species found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean was used as a food source and in medicinal practices from prehistoric times with potential research and medical applications going forward.
Nymphaea lotus var. thermalis is a variety of Nymphaea lotus native to Romania.
Nymphaea mexicana is a species of aquatic plant that is native to the Southern United States and Mexico as far south as Michoacán. Common names include yellow water lily, Mexican water lily and banana water lily.
Nymphaea pubescens, the hairy water lily or pink water-lily, is a species of water lily.
Nymphoides peltata is perennial, rooted aquatic plant with floating leaves of the family Menyanthaceae.
Nymphaea odorata, also known as the American white waterlily, fragrant water-lily, beaver root, fragrant white water lily, white water lily, sweet-scented white water lily, and sweet-scented water lily, is an aquatic plant belonging to the genus Nymphaea. It can commonly be found in shallow lakes, ponds, and permanent slow moving waters throughout North America where it ranges from Central America to northern Canada. It is also reported from Brazil and Guyana.
Nymphaea nouchali var. zanzibariensis is a variety of the water lily species Nymphaea nouchali Burm.f. naturally found in the region stretching from Southeastern Kenya to Southern Africa, including the Comoros and Madagascar. It has been Introduced into Florida, USA.
Nymphaea nouchali, often known by its synonym Nymphaea stellata, or by common names blue lotus, star lotus, red water lily, dwarf aquarium lily, blue water lily, blue star water lily or manel flower, is a water lily of genus Nymphaea. It is native to southern and eastern parts of Asia, and is the national flower of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In Sanskrit it is called utpala. This species is usually considered to include the blue Egyptian lotus N. nouchali var. caerulea. In the past, taxonomic confusion has occurred, with the name Nymphaea nouchali incorrectly applied to Nymphaea pubescens.
Myricitrin is a plant compound, the 3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranoside of myricetin.
Nymphaea tetragona is an aquatic perennial, species of flowering plant commonly called pygmy waterlily and small white water lily, belonging to the family Nymphaeaceae.
