CROATIAN FLORA 2006 - YELLOW POND-LILY

Yellow pond-lily (Nuphar lutea (L.) Sm., in Sibth. et Sm.) Family Nymphaeaceae English yellow pond-lily, spatterdock German Gelbe Teichrose French nénuphar jaune Italian ninfea gialla The yellow pond-lily or spatterdock is a freshwater earth-like perennial embedded in the muddy soil by the widely spread thick rhizome (8 cm in diameter), which is the favourite food for many animals. It has no real stem, but the elongated heart-like leaves grow out directly from the long stalk attached to the rhizome. The leathery surface leaves are up to 30 cm in length, green to almost dark brown, and they grow on long stalks (sometimes up to 3m long) with a triangular cross section. The underwater leaves are on short stalks and are almost translucent. The flowers with their faintly alcoholic fragrance are hermaphrodite (they have both male and female organs), they grow individually and are large (up to 6 cm in diameter), with protruding calyxes with circularly spread-out floral parts. Five yellowish-green sepals are bigger (up to 3cm) and live longer than the numerous yellow petals adhering below the pistil. The stamens are numerous and yellow and the ovary is in superior position to the receptacle and is built of 5 to 20 ovules. The fruit are large pods (3 to 4 cm long), which ripen on the water surface and are filled with numerous smooth seeds that get distributed in the water. In various cultures the rhizome of the spatterdock was used for medicinal purposes (as poultice to treat boils and abscesses and as an anaphrodisiac) and more rarely as food. The plant likes sunny places in stagnant of slow-moving freshwater. It is spread along the warm and temperate zone of the whole of the Northern Hemisphere (except for its coldest parts), where it blossoms from April to September. In Croatia it is still a relatively frequent plant, though it is getting more endangered by the diminishing of the marshland, like all other species of the aquatic vegetation.