55. Nymphaea stellata, Willd.

The medicinal plant Nymphaea stellata is a member of the Nymphaeaceae (water lilies) family. This page includes its habitat, botanical descption, medicinal uses (eg., Ayurveda), chemical constituents and history of use in modern and ancient India.

Index in Flora of British India (Hooker): i. 114.

Sanskrit:—Nilôtpal, Indiwar.

Vernacular:—(Sinhalese) Monch; (Porebunder) Kamal, Kala Kamal, Kumdu; (Guj.) Nilkamal; (Mar.) Poyani, Krishna-Kamal. (Hindi) Nil-padma, Lilophal, Nil-kamal.

Habitat:—Common throughout the warmer parts of India and Ceylon, in shallow streams, tanks and ponds. Open all day, says Trimen. But some of the pale blue and drab-coloured varieties in Ratnagiri and Thana (Konkan) open at sunset and close at sunrise. They are found in tropical and Northern Africa. Trimen notes a violet-coloured variety from Ceylon, also pinkish-purple.

Botanical description:—Rootstock ovoid, short, erect; leaves on long, rather slender, submerged petioles; blade floating; about 5-8 in. diam., sagittate-rotund, very obtuse, with a usually narrow sinus, 2-3 in. deep at base, entire or coarsely sinuate, glabrous on both sides.

Flowers: solitary on long peduncles, 3-6 in. diam., sepals narrowly oblong-lanceolate, acute or subacute.

Petals: linear-lanceolate, acute or subobtuse.

Stamens: 40-50, with a tongue-shaped appendage beyond the anthers. Stigmatic rays acute, 10-30, curved upwards at the ends, without appendages, in short horns.

Fruit: globular.

Seeds: longitudinally striate.

Flowers: throughout the year.

Medicinal uses:—Its uses are those of Nymphaea Lotus. Roots and seeds edible, especially in famines.