Nymphaea lotus

Nymphaea lotus, the Tiger Lotus, White lotus or Egyptian White Water-lily, is a flowering plant of the family Nymphaeaceae.

Distribution

It grows in various parts of East Africa and Southeast Asia.Nymphaea lotus var. thermalis is a variety endemic to the thermal water of the Peţa River in the Bihor County, Transylvania, Romania, in Europe.

Cultivation

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 ever, illustrated in Flore des serres 8 t. 775, 776 under the name Nymphaea ortgiesiano-rubra. It is a popular ornamental aquatic plant in Venezuela.

Description

This species of water lily has lily pads which float on the water, and blossoms which rise above the water.

It is a perennial, grows to 45 cm in height. The color of the flower is white and sometimes tinged with pink.

Ecology

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

Uses

As an aquarium plant

Nymphaea lotus is often used as a freshwater aquarium plant. Sometimes it is grown for its flowers, while other aquarists prefer to trim the lily pads, and just have the underwater foliage.

The tiger-like variegations appear under intense illumination.

• 

  Nymphaea lotus is often used as an aquarium plant

• 

  Nymphaea lotus showing variegations on leaves

As a symbol

The Egyptian lotus in ancient times, especially in Egypt, was worshiped. He was considered a symbol of creation.
In Ancient Greece, it was a symbol of innocence and modesty.

The Egyptian lotus is the national flower of Egypt. It is depicted on many of the seals of the different Provinces in Thailand. It is also an element of the Coptic flag.

As food

In some part of Africa the rhizomes and tubers are eaten for the starch they contain either boiled, roasted or ground to a flour after drying. The young fruits are sometimes consumed as a salad. The seeds are turned into a meal.

The tubers or the seeds are used as a famine food in India.^[2]

The white lotus in Ancient Egypt

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, which 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 :

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 might have been one of the plants eaten by the Lotophagi of Homer's Odyssey.

Health effects

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 be consumed since Antiquity. The effects of the alkaloids would be those of a psychedelic aphrodisiac, though these effects are more those encountered in Nymphaea caerulea, the blue Egyptian water lily.

Chemistry

The chloroform, ethyl acetate and n-butanol extracts of the leaf shows the presence of phenolic compounds (flavonoids, coumarins and tannins), sterols and alkaloids.^[3]

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,^[4] myricetin-3-O-rhamnoside and penta-O-galloyl-beta-D-glucose.^[5]

See also

• Nymphaea caerulea, the Egyptian blue lotus or sacred lotus
• Nymphaea nouchali, the star lotus or red and blue water-lily

External links

• Nymphaea lotus in West African plants – A Photo Guide.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nymphaea lotus.