• Family : NYMPHAEACEAE
  (Water-Lily Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : NEELKAMAL FAMILY (नीलकमल फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : NYMPHAEACEAE
• Synonym(s) : Nymphaea stellata Willd.
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Nymphaea nouchali Burm.f.
• Common name : Star Water Lily, Blue Water-lily, Indian waterlily
• Vernacular name : Neel padma, Neel kamal (Hindi); Naidile, Neela thavare (Kannada); Alli, Karunaithal, Neelothbalam (Tamil); Neeti kaluva, Nalla kalava (Telugu); Nilkain, Subdikain, Padma (Oria); Kumudam (Sanskrit); Uplia kamal (Marathi); Ampala, Ambel, Neerambel, Periambel, Poothali, Bellampel (Malayalam)
• Habit : Herb (Aquatic)
• Habitat : Water bodies
• Comments / notes : Common im plains; abundant towards the coast
• Flower, Fruit : Throughout the year
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Guntur district, Kurnool district, Prakasam district, Chittoor district
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
  • Odisha : All districts of Odisha
  • Tamil Nadu : All districts of Tamil Nadu
• Native : Tropical Africa, Asia, Australia
• World Distribution : Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia, Laos, Thailand, New Guinea, Philippines and Indonesia
• Conservation Status : Least Concern (LC)
• Literature : Pullaiah et al., 2002 - Flora of Eastern Ghats Vol. 1; J.L.Ellis, 1987- Flora of Nallamalais Vol. 1; H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1994- Flora of Orissa Vol. 1; R. S. Rao et al., 1986 - Flora of West Godavari District; R. S. Rao and S. H. Sreeramulu, 1986 - Flora of Srikakulam District; IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1. ; Matthew, K.M., Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (1). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983; Henry, Kumari & Chithra (1983). Flora of Tamil Nadu, India vol. 1; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Nymphaea nouchali. Downloaded on 3 July 2025.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Line Drawings