Nymphaea Lotus
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''Nymphaea lotus'', the white Egyptian lotus, tiger lotus, white lotus, or Egyptian water-lily, is a
flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...
of the family
Nymphaeaceae Nymphaeaceae () is a family of flowering plants, commonly called water lilies. They live as rhizomatous aquatic herbs in temperate climate, temperate and tropical climates around the world. The family contains five genera with about 70 know ...
.


Distribution

It grows in various parts of
East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...
and
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
. ''Nymphaea lotus'' var. ''thermalis'' was believed to be a
Tertiary Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to: * Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago * Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...
relict variety endemic to the thermal waters of Europe, for example, the Peţa River in Romania. DNA analysis has concluded that ''Nymphaea lotus'' var. ''thermalis'' lacks distinctiveness from ''Nymphaea lotus'' and therefore cannot be classified as a relic population.Laczkó, L., Lukács, B. A., Mesterházy, A., Molnár, A., & Sramkó, G. (2019)
"Is ''Nymphaea lotus'' var. ''thermalis'' a Tertiary relict in Europe?."
Aquatic Botany, 155, 1-4.


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 ''Nymphaea'' () is a genus of hardiness (plants), 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 ta ...
'' 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.


Description

This species of water lily has lily pads that float on the water and blossoms that rise above the water. It is a
perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...
, growing to 45 cm in height. The flower is white, 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.'' ''Nymphaea lotus'' has the exceptional ability to persist through a dry season with
rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...
s. It possesses the ability to reduce evaporation by up to 18 percent on most of the days during the summer period.


Uses


As an aquarium plant

''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. The tiger-like
variegation '' Cryptocarya williwilliana'' showing leaf venation and variegated leaves Variegation is the appearance of differently coloured zones in the foliage, flowers, and sometimes the stems and fruit of plants, granting a speckled, striped, or patch ...
s appear under intense illumination. File:Egyptiantigerlotus.jpg, ''Nymphaea lotus'' is often used as an aquarium plant File:Nymphaea lotus.JPG, ''Nymphaea lotus'' showing variegations on leaves


As a symbol

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 Modesty, sometimes known as demureness, is a mode of dress and deportment which intends to avoid the encouraging of sexual attraction in others. The word ''modesty'' comes from the Latin word ''wikt:modestus, modestus'' which means 'keeping with ...
. The Egyptian lotus is the
national flower In a number of countries, plants have been chosen as symbols to represent specific geographic areas. Some countries have a country-wide floral emblem; others in addition have symbols representing subdivisions. Different processes have been used t ...
of
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
. Claire Waight Keller included the flower to represent
Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...
in Meghan Markle's
wedding A wedding is a ceremony in which two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnicity, ethnicities, Race (human categorization), races, religions, Religious denomination, denominations, Cou ...
veil, which included the distinctive flora of each
Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...
country.


As food

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. The tubers or seeds are used as a
famine food A famine food or poverty food is any inexpensive or ready available food used to nourish people in times of hunger and starvation, whether caused by extreme poverty, such as during economic depression or war, or by natural disasters such as dro ...
in India.


The white lotus in Ancient Egypt

The
ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
ians 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 Ramesses II (sometimes written Ramses or Rameses) (; , , ; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was an Pharaoh, Egyptian pharaoh. He was the third ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Nineteenth Dynasty. Along with Thutmose III of th ...
. 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 Horus (), also known as Heru, Har, Her, or Hor () in Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as the god of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and t ...
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 The system of ancient Egyptian numerals was used in Ancient Egypt from around 3000 BC until the early first millennium AD. It was a system of numeration based on multiples of ten, often rounded off to the higher power, written in hieroglyphs. Th ...
is represented by the symbol of the white lotus. The related hieroglyph is: M12 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 In Greek mythology, lotophages or the lotus-eaters () were a race of people living on an island dominated by the lotus tree off coastal Tunisia (Island of Djerba), a plant whose botanical identity is uncertain. The Lotophagi race in the ''Ody ...
of
Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
's
Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...
.


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 have been consumed since antiquity. The effects of the alkaloids could be those of a psychedelic
aphrodisiac An aphrodisiac is a substance that increases libido, sexual desire, sexual attraction, sexual pleasure, or sexual behavior. These substances range from a variety of plants, spices, and foods to synthetic chemicals. Natural aphrodisiacs, such as ...
, though these effects are more those encountered in ''
Nymphaea caerulea ''Nymphaea nouchali'' var. ''caerulea'', is a water lily in the genus '' Nymphaea'', a botanical variety of '' Nymphaea nouchali''. It is an aquatic plant of freshwater lakes, pools and rivers, naturally found throughout most of the eastern h ...
'', 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. 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, myricetin-3-''O''-rhamnoside and penta-''O''-galloyl-β-D-glucose.


References


External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q161111 lotus Flora of Africa Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus