Crested Floatingheart flowers on Kas plateau

  • 5 years ago
Crested Floatingheart or Nymphoides hydrophylla is an aquatic floating herb. Stems 10-30 cm, rooting from nodes. Leaves few per node. The plant is has it signature floating heart-shaped leaves. Flowers small, simple, five-petaled, star shaped. Petals are oblong-round, winged along their length with a crest-like lobe. Stamens five, short, between the interstices of the petals, with apices, whitish, interposed with five rather short staminodes, with which out of the middle of the opening a green globule, cuspidate. This flower has a cousin called Water Snowflake which has frilly petals.

Water lily/Nymphaeaceae is a family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called water lilies and live in freshwater areas in temperate and tropical climates around the world. The family contains eight genera. There are about 70 species of water lilies around the world. The genus Nymphaea contains about 35 species across the Northern Hemisphere. The genus Victoria contains two species of giant water lilies and can be found in South America. Water lilies are rooted in soil in bodies of water, with leaves and flowers floating on the water surface. The leaves are round, with a radial notch in Nymphaea and Nuphar, but fully circular in Victoria. Water lilies are divided into two main categories: hardy and tropical. Hardy water lilies bloom only during the day, but tropical water lilies can bloom either during the day or at night, and are the only group to contain blue-flowered plants.

Kas/Kaas Plateau is a lateritic soil plateau on the ridge of North Western Ghats of India located to the west of Satara, Maharashtra. Kas plateau has only a shallow upper layer soil in scattered depressions and composed of exposed porous soft rock. The plateau is filled with small rivulets and ponds. The origin of its name 'Kaas' is still unclear yet this was once home to 'kaasa' plants Elaeocarpus. Probably the place got its name from the 'Kaasa' plant. Kas Plateau is recently recognised by UNESCO as a world natural heritage site. The flora on Kas plateau consists of herbaceous plants many of them being ephemerals dotted with clumps of shrubs, memecylon being the dominant species. The floral extravaganza at Kas begins with the advent of North West monsoon. The spectacle of Kas flowers has been unfolding each year after surviving through annual grazing and burning, yet Kas is threatened by the insurgence of thousands of visitors thronging the plateau on peak flowering days. Satara is a city located in the Satara District of Maharashtra state of India. The town is 2320 ft. above sea-level, near the confluence of the Krishna and its tributary river Venna. The city was the capital of the Maratha empire in the 17th century, hence one of the historical cities of Maharashtra. This city is the capital of Satara Tehsil, as well as Satara District.

Source: Wikipedia

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