Culinary Despite their toxicity, water lilies have some reported uses as food. In India, it has mostly been eaten as a
famine food or as a medicinal (both cooked). In
Sri Lanka it was formerly eaten as a type of medicine and its price was too high to serve as a normal meal, but in the 1940s or earlier some villagers began to grow water lilies in the
paddy fields left uncultivated during the
monsoon season (Yala season), and the price dropped. The tubers are called
manel here and eaten boiled and in curries. The plants were also said to be eaten in the
Philippines. In the 1950s there were no records of leaves or flowers being eaten. In a North American species, the boiled young leaves and unopened flower buds are said to be edible. The seeds, high in starch, protein, and oil, may be popped, parched, or ground into flour. Potato-like tubers can be collected from the species
N. tuberosa (=
N. odorata). Water lilies were said to have been a major food source for a certain tribe of indigenous Australians in 1930, with the flowers and stems eaten raw, while the "roots and seedpods" were cooked either on an open fire or in a ground oven. jar found at
Amarna Other uses Tannins extracted from rhizomes are used in dyeing wool a purple-black or brown colour. The peduncles are used as pipes to smoke tobacco. ==Culture==