WATER LILY

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                               WATER LILY

              Scientific Name ¦-  Nymphaea rubra Roxb.

              Family               ¦-  Nymphaeaceae

            Vernacular Names  

            English     ¦-   Water lily

            Malayalam ¦-   Aambal

            Hindi         ¦-  Chhota kamal

           Sanskrit      ¦-  Aruna kamala.

           Bengali       ¦–  Rakta kamal

           Tamil          ¦–  Allitamarai

           Telugu        ¦–  Allitamara

           Distribution and Habitat ¦-  Common throughout India in the warmer parts.

           Parts Used                      ¦-  Root stalk, flower.

           Properties                      ¦-  Stomachic, antidiarrhoeal.

Uses ¦-  Flower is used in removing impurities from the blood, thirst, and cough and vomiting. Powdered rootstock is used in dyspepsia, diarrhoea, piles.

Botany ¦-  Aquatic herbs. Root stock tuberous, short, erect, and roundish. Leaves peltate, 15-25 cm diameter, sharply toothed, downy but not spotted beneath. Lobes diverging; connectivum not prolonged. Petioles very long, cylindric, submerged, glabrous or puberulous, inserted 12-18 mm within very near the margin of the leaf. Flowers, solitary,7.5-20 cm across, deep red, pale rose or white, open in the mornings only; peduncles very long, usually pubescent; torus bottle shaped. Sepals 4, oblong, obtuse, 5-10 ribbed. Petals numerous, about 12, oblong, obtuse, about thrice as long as broad. Stamens about 40; anthers without appendages; filaments much dilated at the base; pollen smooth. Stigma 10-20, rayed, with clavate appendages. Fruits 3 cm diam, fleshy, globose, green, ripening beneath the water. Seeds ovoid, rough, aril white, transparent.

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