Nymphaea nouchali, known as red and blue water-lily, blue star water-lily, or star lotus, is an aquatic flowering plant in the Nymphaceae (water-lily family), native to southern and eastern Asia (including the Indian subcontinent, China, and Taiwan), Borneo, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Australia, where it typically grows in ponds. It is often called the “blue lotus of India,” but it is not a true lotus (of the lotus family, Nelumbaceae; the genus Lotus is in the legume family, Fabaceae), nor are water-lilies true lilies (of the family Liliaceae).
N. nouchali grows from rhizomes or tubers rooted under the water. Leaves are oval to round, 13–15 cm (5–6 in), with an open sinus at the leaf base where it attaches to the petiole (leaf stem). Leaves may spread 1.4–1.5 m (4–5 feet) from where the rhizome is rooted. Flowers, which have little fragrance, are stellate (star-shaped) with 4 sepals and 10–16 petals, and are 5–13 cm (2–5 in) in diameter. Although leaves float on the water surface, flowers are generally held 30 cm (12 in) above water. They are usually pale blue (but can be pink or white) with pale yellow stamens and anthers.
N. nouchali has been cultivated in southeast Asia for centuries, especially around temples. It is also cultivated in Sri Lanka and gathered from dried ponds in India for the rhizomes, which are used as food and animal fodder as a source of starch. In Ayurvedic medicine, it is used to treat indigestion.
Cultivars include N. nouchali var. cyanea, which has medium-sized pale to deep blue flowers, and N. nouchali var. versicolor, which is commonly exported in the form of tubers from Sri Lanka to Europe and the U.S. for use in the aquariums; the tubers grow quickly after exposure to warm water, making an “instant” aquarium plant.
(Everett 1981, FOC 2011, Slocum 2005, Wikipedia 2011)
- Everett, T.H. 1981. “Nymphaea.” The New York Botanical Garden Illustrated Encyclopedia of Horticulture 7: 2351–2357.
- FOC. 2011. Nymphaea nouchali. Flora of China 6: 118. Acccessed 21 December 2011 from http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=242000584.
- Slocum, P.D. 2005. Waterlilies and Lotuses: Species, Cultivars, and New Hybrids. Portland, OR: Timber Press. 260 p.
- Wikipedia. 2011. "Nymphaea nouchali." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 21 December 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nymphaea_nouchali&oldid=441382584.
Nymphaea nouchali Burm. f., 1768
Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Y. Ito ; Location: country: Myanmar ; locality: Bago Division; border to Rakhain State ; verbatimLatitude: 18° 40' 27'' N; verbatimLongitude: 94° 53' 41'' E; Event: eventDate: Dec. 11, 2006 ; Record Level: collectionID: Sugawara et al. 036514; institutionCode: TI
Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Y. Ito ; Location: country: Myanmar ; locality: Rakhain State; between God village and mangrove forest ; verbatimLatitude: 18° 29' 30" N; verbatimLongitude: 94° 16' 13" E; Event: eventDate: Dec. 12, 2006 ; Record Level: collectionID: Sugawara et al. 036535; institutionCode: TI
Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Y. Ito ; Location: country: Thailand ; locality: Sattalip, Taong Breng ; verbatimLatitude: 12° 43' N; verbatimLongitude: 100° 56' E; Event: eventDate: Oct. 1, 1969 ; Record Level: collectionID: J.F. Maxwell s.n.; institutionCode: AAU
Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Y. Ito ; Location: country: Thailand ; locality: Narathiwat Province; S of Naratiwat ; verbatimLatitude: 6° 30' N; verbatimLongitude: 101° 45' E; Event: eventDate: Mar. 8, 1974 ; Record Level: collectionID: K. Larsen & S.S. Larsen 33086; institutionCode: AAU
Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Y. Ito ; Location: country: Thailand ; locality: Ayuthaya Province; Ayuthaya District ; verbatimLatitude: 14° 22' N; verbatimLongitude: 100° 35' E; Event: eventDate: Dec. 3, 1979 ; Record Level: collectionID: T. Shimizu et al. T-26093; institutionCode: AAU
Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Y. Ito ; Location: country: Thailand ; locality: Phetchabury ; verbatimLatitude: 13° 30' 06" N; verbatimLongitude: 99° 47' 37" E; Event: eventDate: Nov. 14, 2012 ; Record Level: collectionID: Y. Ito 1711; institutionCode: BKF
Bangladesh, China (Southern), India (nationwide),?Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Papua New guinea,?Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka,?Vietnam.
- Ito, Yu, Barfod, Anders S. (2014): An updated checklist of aquatic plants of Myanmar and Thailand. Biodiversity Data Journal 2, 1019: 1019-1019, URL:http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.2.e1019
Indo-Malesia and Tropical Africa
State - Kerala, District/s: All Districts"
Solitary, regular, bisexual; white. Flowering throughout the year.
A spongy berry, ripening below the surface; seeds many, minute, embedded in the pulp, enclosed in a sac like aril. Fruiting throughout the year.
Leaves sharply sinuate toothed, densely pubescent beneath.
Habitat and Ecology
Habitat & Distribution
Life History and Behavior
Molecular Biology and Genetics
Statistics of barcoding coverage: Nymphaea stellata
Public Records: 0
Specimens with Barcodes: 3
Species With Barcodes: 1
IUCN Red List Assessment
Red List Category
Red List Criteria
Relevance to Humans and Ecosystems
Nymphaea nouchali, or by its synonym Nymphaea stellata, or by name star lotus, red and blue water lily, blue star water lily is a water lily of genus Nymphaea. It is the national flower of Sri Lanka and of Bangladesh.
Distribution and habitat
This aquatic plant is native from the Indian Subcontinent to Australia region. It has been long valued as a garden flower in Thailand and Myanmar to decorate ponds and gardens. In its natural state N. nouchali is found in static or slow-flowing aquatic habitats of little to moderate depth.
Nymphaea nouchali is a day-blooming nonviviparous plant with submerged roots and stems. Part of the leaves are submerged, while others rise slightly above the surface. The leaves are round and green on top; they usually have a darker underside. The floating leaves have undulating edges that give them a crenellate appearance. Their size is about 20–23 cm and their spread is 0.9 to 1.8 m
This water lily has a beautiful flower which is usually violet blue in color with reddish edges. Some varieties have white, purple, mauve or fuchsia-colored flowers, hence its name red and blue water lily. The flower has 4-5 sepals and 13-15 petals that have an angular appearance making the flower look star-shaped from above. The cup-like calyx has a diameter of 11–14 cm.
In Sri Lanka this plant usually grows in buffalo ponds and natural wetlands. Its beautiful aquatic flower has been mentioned in Sanskrit, Pali and Sinhala literary works since ancient times under the names kuvalaya, indhīwara, niluppala, nilothpala and nilupul as a symbol of virtue, discipline and purity. Buddhist lore in Sri Lanka claims that this flower was one of the 108 auspicious signs found on Prince Siddhartha's footprint. It is said that when Buddha died, lotus flowers blossomed everywhere he had walked in his lifetime.
N. nouchali is used as an ornamental plant because of its spectacular flowers. It is also popular as an aquarium plant under the name "Dwarf Lily" or "Dwarf Red Lily". Sometimes it is grown for its flowers, while other aquarists prefer to trim the lily pads, and just have the underwater foliage.
Like all waterlilies or lotuses, its tubers and rhizomes can be used as food items; they are eaten usually boiled or roasted. In the case of N. nouchali, its tender leaves and flower peduncles are also valued as food.
- Nymphaea caerulea, the Egyptian blue lotus or sacred lotus
- Nymphaea lotus, the white lotus or Egyptian white water-lily
- List of freshwater aquarium plant species
- Constitution Of The People's Republic Of Bangladesh
- Hettiarachchi, Kumudini (November 7, 2010). "The Great Pretender". The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
- TokyoNet - National Statistics
- P. V. Sharma, Puṣpāyurvedaḥ - Pradhāna vitaraka Caukhambhā Bhāratī Akādamī, 1998
- FR Irvine, RS Trickett - Waterlilies as Food - Kew Bulletin, 1953
- A Banerjee, S Matai - Composition of Indian aquatic plants in relation to utilization as animal forage - Journal of Aquatic plant management, 1990