Nymphaea nouchali var. caerulea

Nymphaea nouchali var. caerulea, or simply Nymphaea caerulea, also known as blue lotus or blue water lily among many other names, and known in English as Egyptian lotus, blue water lily (RSA), Utpala (India), Cape blue waterlily (USA) and sacred blue lily, Recent research by UC Berkeley confirmed that the authentic Nymphaea caerulea is chemically distinct from many products sold online, which contain significantly less of the alkaloid nuciferine and are misidentified water lilies.

Nymphaea caerulea, first described by Marie Jules César Savigny in 1798, was later classified as a variety of Nymphaea nouchali by Bernard Verdcourt in 1989. Though it is still most commonly referred to as a variety of Nymphaea nouchali, recent phylogenetic studies have problematized the taxonomy. When defined taxonomically as Nymphaea nouchali var. caerulea, it is considered synonymous with Nymphaea capensis. That is to say, it has small tubers that may develop into short vertical rhizomes. It is a perennial. One plant can spread over an area of about 1 metre.

Nymphaea caerulea contains the psychoactive alkaloid nuciferine, which contributes to its euphoric effects. Chemical analyses using mass spectrometry have shown that authentic flowers have significantly higher concentrations of nuciferine compared to other water lilies.

Cytology

The chromosome count is n = 14. The genome size is 567.24 Mb.

Taxonomy

Nymphaea spectabilis, a purple form known from cultivation, and N. capensis, found throughout eastern, central and southern Africa, as well as a number of other named taxa, were synonymised to N. nouchali var. caerulea in the 1989 addition to the Flora of Tropical East Africa (FTEA) series, a position which has generally been accepted, although some of the authorities in Bangladesh When genomes from the water lily genus (Nymphaea) were published in the journal Nature in 2020, N. caerulea was cited under that name, not as N. nouchali var. caerulea. Another phylogenetic study from 2021 found N. caerulea (as N. capensis) to be closest related to N. colorata, an east African species.

Nymphaea nouchali is itself a taxonomically challenging species, with a distribution that spans Australia, throughout southern Asia, across Africa to the Western Cape. This subgenus appears to be phylogenetically sound. Congo-Brazzaville, Angola but the plants in the wild are now thought to be N. caerulea. It is considered an environmental weed in Australia. The waterlily stands in this lake are especially poor in invertebrate biodiversity, which may reflect the low levels of dissolved oxygen near the sediments in this habitat. In Lake Bisina, Uganda, N. caerulea is most clearly associated with Utricularia reflexa; this may be due to similar ecological niches, it may just mean the small, rootless, free-moving Utricularia simply get snagged on the petioles, but it may indicate some sort of a commensal relationship, with U. reflexa being shaded by the leaves of N. caerulea. Hydrilla verticillata is another plant which seems to sometimes occur together with the waterlily in this lake, as well as in Lake Bunyonyi.

Pollination is entomophilous. In fact, the carpellary appendages in this type of water-lily appear to have evolved specifically to attract bee species in general. In a way, these waterlilies are parasites of the services of bees, attracting the insects by deceit, without actually rewarding them for their labours. These seeds only germinate when heavy rains flood the banks, and they are submerged under a layer of water. In Kenya, N. caerulea is positively associated with the freshwater snail Biomphalaria pfeifferi, which is a main host of human schistosomiasis. The edible American crayfish Procambarus clarkii eliminates the mollusc, as well as feeding on the water-lily. The crayfish was first introduced to Kenya in 1966 as a species with which to enhance the local fisheries. In Lake Naivasha, N. caerulea was extremely common until the 1970s,

Psychoactive effects

It has been suggested that Nymphaea caerulea was used in ancient Egypt for religious rituals, sexual enhancement, and other purposes, due to the purported presence of nuciferine and apomorphine, the latter of which is also used today to treat erectile dysfunction. The key active constituents and mechanisms of action of the plant are unknown.

Andrew Sherratt and colleagues investigated the effects of Nymphaea caerulea in two human volunteers in the 1998 television series Sacred Weeds. It was the first known study and demonstration of the psychoactive effects of the plant in humans. since 1963. with photos of a real Nymphaea caerulea posted on their social media as recent as 2019. Due to its colour, it was identified, in some beliefs, as having been the original container, in a similar manner to an egg, of Atum, and in similar beliefs Ra, both solar deities. As such, its properties form the origin of the "lotus variant" of the Ogdoad cosmogony. It was also the symbol of the Egyptian deity Nefertem.

Often depicted in ancient art and found in tombs—including the petals discovered in King Tutankhamun's burial chamber in 1922—it held a sacred role in religious rituals. Notably featured in the Festival of Drunkenness honoring Hathor, goddess of love and fertility, the flower was believed to induce visions when soaked in wine, possibly used in ecstatic or hallucinogenic rites. Native to the Nile River, the species has become rare due to ecological changes, particularly following the construction of the Aswan Dam, and is now considered threatened. The plant is included on the Department of Defense Prohibited Dietary Supplement Ingredients List, and its use is a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) The plant was banned in Poland in March 2009. Possession and distribution lead to a criminal charge. N. caerulea has been illegal in Russia since April 2009, along with related products such as Salvia divinorum, Argyreia nervosa, and others.

Notes

References

External links

Erowid Vault about Blue Lotus