Nuphar lutea
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 Nuphar lutea
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| Nuphar lutea L. Sm. |
Nuphar lutea, the spatterdock, yellow water-lily, cow lily, or yellow pond-lily, is an aquatic plant of the family Nymphaeaceae, native to Eurasia. It grows in eutrophic freshwater beds, with its roots fixed into the ground and its leaves floating on the water's surface.
The plant's inflorescence is a solitary, terminal hermaphrodite flower, pollinated by insects, which blooms from June to September in the Northern Hemisphere. The flower is followed by achenes which are distributed by the water current.
Spatterdock was long used in traditional medicine, with the root applied to the skin and/or both the root and seeds eaten for a variety of conditions. The seeds are edible, and can be ground into flour. The root is edible too, but can prove to be incredibly bitter in some plants.
Possible botanical synonyms include Nuphar luteum (L.) Sibthorp & Sm. and Nuphar advena (Ait) Ait f.
[edit] Trivia
In an episode of Survivorman, host Les Stroud risked hypothermia to dig up a spatterdock root in the Canadian wilderness. Even with boiling, the plant's bitterness made it barely palatable.
[edit] References
- Translated from the French Wikipedia article, accessed June 23 2006
