Distribution and habitat: Common throughout India in the warmer parts

Botany: Aquatic herbs. Root stock tuberous, short, erect, and roundish. 

• Leaves: Peltate, 15-25 cm diameter, sharply toothed, downy but not spotted beneath. Lobes diverging; connectivum not prolonged. Petioles very long, cylindric, submerged, glabrous or puberulous, inserted 12-18 mm within very near the margin of the leaf.
• Flowers: Solitary,7.5-20 cm across,  deep red, pale rose or white, open in the mornings only; peduncles very long, usually pubescent; torus bottle shaped. Sepals 4, oblong, obtuse, 5-10 ribbed. Petals numerous, about 12, oblong, obtuse, about thrice as long as broad. Stamens about 40; anthers without appendages; filaments much dilated at the base; pollen smooth. Stigma 10-20, rayed, with clavate appendages.
• Fruits: 3 cm diameter, fleshy, globose, green, ripening beneath the water. Seeds ovoid, rough, aril white, transparent.

Properties: Stomachic, antidiarrhoeal, antidiabetic, antiinflammatory, 

Chemical constituents: Flower contains nuciferine, and apomorphine, virganin, lactucopicrin methylester, and epitheaflavic acid.

Uses:  Flower is used in removing impurities from the blood, thirst, cough and vomiting. Powdered rootstock is used in dyspepsia, diarrhoea, piles

Propagation: Tuber