KARNATAKA

State Flower: Tavare-gadde, Kamala (Kannada).

Botanical Name: Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.

Family: Nelumbonaceae.

Common Names:
Names: Chinese Water Lily, East Indian Lotus, Lotus, Sacred Lotus (English); Kamal,

Kanwal (Hindi); Ambuja, Padma, Pankaja (Sanskrit); Ambal, Tamarai (Tamil).

Etymology: The generic name, Nelumbo is derived from Tamil/Sinhalese word ‘nelumbu’

Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.

(Neelum + Poo), and specific epithet, nucifera attributes to its nut-bearing fruit.

Description:
escription: An aquatic rhizomatous, perennial plant; rhizomes are stout, creeping, grow in

the mud at the bottom of freshwater shallow ponds, lakes, marshes and flooded fields. Leaves

are orbicular, 60 – 90 cm, peltate, glaucous, water-repellent, usually float on the water surface

or exserted well above; petioles 1 to 2 m long. The flowers are large, solitary, white or rosy.

The fruit torus is large, top-shaped, 5 – 10 cm in diam., spongy with many 1-ovuled carpels

sunk separately in cavities on the upper side; carpels maturing into ovoid nut-like achenes.

Flowering
Flowering & Fruiting: March – October.

Range of Distribution:
Distribution: It occurs from warm-temperate to tropical regions of Asia (Iran to

China, Japan and New Guinea) and northeastern Australia. It is native to China, Japan and

possibly India. In India, it is widely distributed from sub-Himalayan regions to southern most

part of India.
Economic Importance:
Importance: Lotus is often cultivated for its sweet-scented, elegant flowers, and also

for its edible rhizomes and seeds. The starch-containing rhizomes (Kamal-kakadi) are sold as

vegetable in markets. Fresh rhizomes are eaten after roasting, or also pickled and eaten; while

dried slices are used in curry or fried as chips. Young leaves and flowers are also eaten as

vegetable. The fruiting torus (Kamalgatta) is often sold for the edible and nutritious carpels

embedded in it. Flowers were once used as the source of a perfume, which was highly priced;

the present day lotus perfume is a blend of patchouli, benzoin and storax with phenylethyl and

cinnamic alcohols.

Traditional Uses
Uses: The flowers are used as ornament and as offering in temples. The petioles

yield a yellowish white fibre, used for lighting diyas. Since ancient times the lotus has been a

divine symbol in Indian traditions. Hindus revere it with the divinities, Vishnu and Lakshmi

often portrayed on a pink lotus in iconography. In Hinduism it is associated with the creation

mythology featuring the gods Vishnu, Brahma, and Lakshmi as well as most other deities. In

Buddism, the Buddha and various deities are portrayed seated on and/or holding lotuses.

Medicinal Uses:
Uses: A kind of arrowroot is prepared from the fleshy rhizomes. It is aromatic and

sweet and is reported to be not only nutritious but also tonic. It is given to children in cases of

diarrhoea, dysentery and dyspepsia. Rhizome paste is applied in ringworm and other

cutaneous affections. The milky viscid juice of leaf and flower stalks is used in diarrhoea.

Saline extracts of stem, leaves and flowers possess bacteriostatic action against Gram-positive

and Gram-negative bacteria. The honey from bees which visit lotus flowers is considered

useful for affections of the eye. Carpels are demulcent and nutritive and are used to check

vomiting; seeds are edible and medicinal.

Note: The plant can be propagated by rhizomes and may also be propagated through seeds.

J. Jayanthi

Botanical Survey of India, Western Regional Centre, Pune.