For some, water lilies - that is what white water lilies are called - flowers are familiar and uninteresting, for others - shrouded in legends and mystery. This plant has several names - nymphea, even lotus (the name is used in Egypt and India in relation to individual species). Let's take a closer look at the features of the external structure of the aquatic representative of the flora and learn a number of interesting facts about it.
Descriptions
In the photo of a water lily, you can see that this plant is distinguished by amazing elegance, natural harmony. It is a perennial, belongs to the Nymphaeum (Water Lily) family, it can be found in water bodies almost all over the globe, but it prefers a temperate and tropical climate.
The distinctive features of the water lily are as follows:
- Powerful rhizome with a large number of long roots, due to which the plant is held in the ground.
- The stem is transformed into a rhizome or tuber.
- Large white flower with a yellow center. For himcharacterized by a symmetrical shape, a long pedicel and a double perianth. No more than 4-5 sepals, few pistils.
- The leaf has a simple structure, thick, heart-shaped. Due to the fact that inside it there are cavities with air, it does not sink under water. There are plants with large leaves, there are also species in which they are small.
- There are also underwater leaves, rolled up with a cap and covered with films, under them the development of surface leaves occurs.
- The surface of the above-water plates is dense, as if covered with wax - this is a means of protecting it from moisture. Most often they are green in color, but some plants have a bright burgundy color, others are variegated.
- The fruit is an underwater multileaflet.
The plant prefers to grow in ponds with stagnant water and good lighting. Some varieties, due to their decorative properties, have become actively used in landscape design, allowing you to create unique water compositions.
Colours
The color of the water lily plant is diverse. In addition to the usual snow-white flowers, you can find the following color options:
- Blue.
- Purple.
- Lilac.
- Cream.
- Pink.
- Yellow.
- Red.
Bright colors are inherent in those plants that grow in the warm corners of the planet, a more modest design is inherent in water lilies - residents of Russia.
Features of the plant
After getting acquainted with the description of the water lily, let's move on to the story of the distinctive features of this beautiful plant:
- The water lilies open in the morning, but close at sunset.
- Flowering falls on the period from the second half of May to the end of August. The life expectancy of one flower is small - no more than 4 days.
- Often, the water lily is confused with another aquatic representative of the flora, the egg capsule, the distinguishing feature of which is bright yellow flowers.
You can meet the classic version of the water lily - the white water lily - in central Russia, the Far East, Central Asia.
Reproduction
Let's consider how lily reproduction occurs. A flower pollinated by insects sinks to the bottom, where the polysemyanka ripens - a fruit that looks like a berry. It contains more than a thousand seeds - small, black, caviar-like fish that float to the surface after the death of the berry. Floating on the water surface, they often become food for fish and birds, and are also carried by the current. Those seeds that have survived are gradually freed from the mucus surrounding them and sink to the bottom, where they germinate.
Also, water lilies have the ability to reproduce by rhizome, this is the main method for them.
Myths and legends
Folk beliefs ascribe magical properties to the plant, calling it "overcome-grass", mermaid color. It was believed that the water lily protects, helps to defeat the enemy, but if the thoughts of a person,using it are black, magic will be turned against him.
Scandinavian legends say that each water lily has its own elf friend, who lives exactly the same time as a beautiful plant.
Interesting facts
We invite you to get acquainted with a selection of interesting facts about water lilies:
- Sometimes these plants are confused with sea lilies, which also resemble a water lily, but science has proven that the latter do not belong to the plant world, representing primitive animals.
- In the leaf of a water lily, a water lily, there is a large amount of air located in special cavities. Therefore, it will not submerge in water when placed on top of anything that weighs more than it, such as a bird.
- The plant has a pleasant aroma that attracts insects for pollination. Sometimes beetles that got inside the flower are forced to spend the night in it, because after sunset the water lily closes. In the morning, insects emerge from flower captivity.
- Considered an amphibian - after the native reservoir dries up, it is able to survive on land.
Water lilies are indicators of the ecological situation in a reservoir - if their number is sharply reduced, then the lake or pond is polluted.
Use
The water lilies pictured above have been used by humans since time immemorial, but in different ways.
- So, the ancient Slavs believedthat this plant is a talisman for traveling to distant lands, so travelers always took with them a small amulet with leaves and water lily flowers.
- In ancient Greece, the water lily was revered as a symbol of beauty and femininity, so its graceful flowers were used to decorate girls. It is known that the beautiful Helen, the unwitting culprit of the Trojan War, dressed in a wreath of water lilies for her wedding.
- In folk medicine, leaves, rhizome and large flowers are used. They help get rid of headaches, help overcome insomnia, are indicated for diarrhea, gallbladder pathologies. A decoction of the flowers, applied externally, relieves inflammation of the skin.
- In the Middle Ages, white water lilies were considered a symbol of purity, so their flowers were used as a means of suppressing sinful passion. The seeds were actively used as food by monks and nuns, but later studies proved that this approach was erroneous, the nymphaeum did not have the ability to fight desire.
- The rhizome of the plant is rich in starch, so it can be used to make flour.
- Water lilies are so beautiful that they are actively used to decorate ponds. Gradually, through the work of breeders, it was possible to develop new varieties, including dwarf ones, with pointed petals and bright colors, which earned the love of landscape design fans.
- Water lily seeds, pre-roasted, are a great alternative to coffee.
Water lily is a plant of amazing beauty, which is a true decoration of a pond. The unusualness of the nymphaeum, its ability to grow in the depths of the lake gave rise to a lot of legends with which our distant ancestors tried to explain the unusual properties of the flower for them, which is why the water lily is still identified in the minds with the mysterious mermaids.
