958
Nymphaea alba
Synonym
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:
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Castalia alba
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Family
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:
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Nymphaeaceae
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Local
name
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:
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English -White water lily
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Flowering
and fruiting period
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:
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April-October.
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Distribution
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:
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Asia: India, China, Russia; Africa; Europe; North
America; South America
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Distribution
in Kerala
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:
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All
districts
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Habitat
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:
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Cultivated and naturalized in ponds and lakes.
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Uses
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:
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Cultivated as ornamental.
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Key botanical
characters:
Aquatic perennial herbs, laticiferous, rooted.
Rhizomes erect or creeping, stoloniferous. Leaves polymorphic, suborbicular
to cordate, , base deeply hastate or cordate, margin, apex obtuse to retuse,
basal lobes unequal, usually floating or submerged, membranous when young and
coriaceous, prominently veined when mature beneath, long petiolate, buds
obtuse at the apex. Flowers bisexual, usually solitary and floating, white, ,
with long peduncles, receptacle cylindrical, sepals 4, free, ovate-oblong,
apex obtusely cucullate, brownish green outside, about 5-8 x 1.5 x 1.8 cm
across, petals about 20-25, oblong-lanceolate, base attenuate, apex obtusely
cucullate, white, outer ones about the length of sepals or slightly longer,
hypogynous to perigynous. Stamens numerous, distributed up to summit of
ovary, filaments of innermost stamens filiform, lanceolate, longer than
anthers, anthers partially sunken, carpels completely united, ovary superior,
bout 14-20 loculate, stigma flat with a hemispheric central projection,
yellow and stigmatic appendages incurved, triangular-ovate, sulcate inside.
Fruit berry about 3-4 cm across. Seeds ellipsoid, smooth.
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