Nymphaea alba

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

European white waterlily

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Nymphaeales
Family:	Nymphaeaceae
Genus:	Nymphaea
Species:	N. alba

Binomial name

Nymphaea alba
L.

Nymphaea alba, also known as the European White Waterlily, White Lotus, or Nenuphar, is an aquatic flowering plant of the family Nymphaeaceae.

It grows in water from 30-150 centimetres deep and likes large ponds and lakes. The leaves can be up to thirty centimetres in diameter and they take up a spread of 150 centimetres per plant. The flowers are white as the name suggests, and they have many small stamens inside.

The red variety which is in cultivation came from lake Fagertärn (Fair tarn) in the forest of Tiveden, where they were discovered in the early 19th century. The discovery led to a large scale exploitation which nearly made it extinct in the wild before it was protected.

It is found all over Europe and in parts of North Africa and the Middle East in freshwater.

Nymphaea candida J. Presl is sometimes considered a subspecies of N. alba (N. alba L. subsp. candida (J. Presl) Korsh.).

It contains the active alkaloids nupharine and nymphaeine, and is a sedative and an aphrodisiac/anaphrodisiac depending on sources. Although roots and stalks are used in traditional herbal medicine along with the flower, the petals and other flower parts are the most potent. Alcohol can be used to extract the active alkaloids, and it also boosts the sedative effects. The root of the plant was used by monks and nuns for hundreds of years as an anaphrodisiac, being crushed and mixed with wine. In the earliest printed medical textbooks, authors would maintain this area of use, though warning against consuming large and frequent doses.^[1]

Several websites which claim to sell nymphaea alba products have spread the rumor that extracts of nymphaea alba were used in place of opium based drugs at times during WWI, but none of the site webmasters were willing or able to give a source to back up that claim.^{[citation needed]} The water lily is also renowned for its beauty in ponds.