Lótusz Nagyváradról: A püspökfürdői hévízi tündérrózsa eredetének kérdése

The Egyptian white waterlilly (Nymphaea lotus L.) is a perennial, tropical, subtropical species of waterlily (Nymphaea) genus. There is a conspicuous satellite occurance in Europe, in a thermal lake called Lake Petea near to Oradea city, NW Romania which was found by Pal Kitalibel in 1798. The plant which lives in this thermal lake was described as the variation of Nymphaea lotus (Nymphaea lotus L. var. thermalis) by Janos Tuzson. Its origin has been part of great debate among scholars during the last 200 years. Some of the scholars’ opinion is that it is a Tertiary relict, others advocate its origin as a result of plantation by human population or recent dispersal by waterbirds. This is one of the several questions we try to answer in our research which treats the environmental history of Lake Petea. The results of the malacological examintations and preliminary radiocarbon analysis suggest that Nymphaea lotus var. thermalis is not a Tertiary relict and these results also show that it is not a result of human activity.