White Water-lily

thewesternisles.co.uk

Wildlife Forum NEW Hebrides bird sightings Bird pictures A - Z Bird pictures: thumbnails Bird ringing Seal and dolphin rescue Difference dolphin porpoise Seal pups Bottlenose dolphin A dolphin rescue BDMLR

Overview Flowering now A - Z wildflowers White wildflowers Yellow wildflowers Pink wildflowers Purple - blue flowers Orchid notes

Stornoway Arch Project June garden

Websites directory Featured sites: Hebridean Baskets Artist Wille Fulton Stornoway Arch Project

Western Isles Wildflowers

Western Isles wildflowers is a collection of information about our Hebridean wildflowers including identification hints, traditional herbal uses and general plant lore.

Nymphaea alba

Gaelic name : Duilleag-bhàite Bhuidhe

White Water-lily was traditionally used in the Western Isles to make a dye for the Harris tweed. The roots of white-water lily boiled with an alum or iron mordant give a black or brown dye.

The roots of the lily were harvested by wading out into a loch and finding the rhizomes with toes, usually during dry weather when the water level had dropped. Some of our lochs are deep, and most have very murky sediments...

We also get yellow water-lily in the Western Isles, this one only occurs in Loch Fada, Lochmaddy in North Uist, and in a loch in South Uist.

White water-lily is a native wildflower of the Western Isles.

Photography © Suzanne Harris
Uig - Isle of Lewis - Outer Hebrides (Western Isles)
17th June, 2007

Index
A-Z Wildflowers

Flowers By Colours:
thumbnails

Flowering in: