949

Nymphaea omarana Hort. ex Gard.

Family	:	Nymphaeaceae
Local name	:	English- Tropical Night-Blooming Water Lily
Flowering and fruiting period	:	Throughout the year
Distribution	:	Native of South America
Distribution in Kerala	:	All Districts
Habitat	:	Grown as garden plant
Endemic/Exotic	:	Exotic
Uses	:	Grown as garden plant
Key botanical characters:   Aquatic herbs, rhizomes not distinct. Leaves subpeltate, broadly ovate-orbicular, obtuse, sinuately dentate and undulate along margins, dark reddish green on both surfaces, glabrous above, velutinous pubescent beneath, cleft near to petiole base; basal lobes equal or subequal, diverging, acute or acuminate; sinus veins 15-17, radiating from petiole base, raised beneath; petioles brownish green, pubescent. Flowers, dark pink or red, not fragrant. Receptacles brownish green, pubescent. Sepals oblong-lanceolate, acute, entire, pinkish green outside, dark pink inside, pubescent on veins outside, 7- veined. Petals 16-25, dark pink or red; outer petals oblanceolate, obtuse,; inner petals oblanceolate-elliptic, acute, veins not prominent. Stamens 50-80, erect and coherent to each other forming a tube around the stigma or in aged flowers the inner ones incurved; filaments pink or inner ones with a purplish band near base; anthers, dark pink; sterile appendages absent. Carpels 16-20; stigmatic surface, concave with a minute central core, dark pink; stigmatic appendages linear, dark pink, incurved in aged flowers. Fruits with persistent floral whorls, Seeds ellipsoid, pink or dark brown, longitudinally ridged with irregular papillae; transverse bands pink or dark brown, in two rows between ridges.