Sinhalese vernacular name for Nelumbo nucifera.
Aquatic plants with thick, spongy rhizomes spreading in mud. Leaves generally held above the water surface on long leaf stalks attached in the centre of the blade (peltate). Flowers bisexual, solitary and raised above the water surface, yellow, pink or white. Sepals 4, similar to the numerous petals. Stamens numerous. Carpels numerous, embedded in a spongy receptacle. Fruit a nut.
The 2 species are hardy in Melbourne. Several cultivars have been developed by hybridisation of the 2 species.
Seeds and division of rhizomes.
Seeds are edible, also the rootstock (as lotus root) and lower leaf stalks after removal of outer layer. Seed heads are used for decoration.
Roundish leaves generally held well above the water surface and with the stalks attached in the centre.
1 genus of 2 species, 1 from North America and 1 from tropical and subtropical Asia extending to N Australia.
Source: (1997). Nymphaeaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
Updated by: Rob Cross, December 2017
