Synonyms : 

Castalia scutifolia Salisb.

Nymphaea abbreviata Guill. & Perr.

Nymphaea acutifolia DC.

 Systematic Position

Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Angiosperms

Order: Nyphaeles

Family: Nymphaeaceae

 Native: Indo-Malesia and Tropical Africa   

 Common Names

English – Water Lilli

Malayalam – ആമ്പൽ

  Description:  Aquatic perennial herb, with laticiferous tissue, rooted. Rhizomes erect or creeping, stoloniferous. Leaves varied, deltoid to suborbicular in shape. Leaves simple and alternately arranged 10-35cm long and 8-30cm wide. They are usually floating or submerged, membranous when young and coriaceous, prominently veined at maturity with long petiole. Flowers bisexual, usually solitary and floating, rarely submerged, yellow, white, pink, red or purple with long peduncles (as long as the depth of water). Flowers are 6-15cm in diameter. Fruits are schizocarpic or a berry, ovoid or globose shape, crowned, with green filaments, ripened under water, seed globose, enclosed in a fleshy bell-shaped aril, smooth or with ridges.

Habitat:  Aquatic herb.

Distribution: Widely cultivated in ponds and streams throughout the tropics.

Uses: Used to treat indigestion. Its pear-shaped, brown cottony-covered, potato-sized rhizomes, leaves and most of the plant are poisonous, and contain an alkaloid called nupharin.