Derivation of the botanical name:
Nuphar, Arabic (Persian) ninufar, pond-lily; Greek nympharion, a diminutive of nymphe; In botanical Latin, Nuphar derived from 'tό nuphar' (το νουφαρ), the Greek neuter noun for pond-lily, a plant used in medicine and known under that name to Aristotle and Dioscorides. When James Edward Smith validated the name Nuphar for a segregate from Nymphaea, he neglegted shifting the epiphet of feminine Nymphaea lutea to neuter Nuphar luteum, and wrote Nuphar lutea.
lutea, golden, saffron, orange-yellow.
The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy.
The standard author abbreviation Sm. is used to indicate James Edward Smith (1759 – 1828), an English botanist and founder of the Linnean Society.
H.B. Tristram, The Natural History of the Bible (1867): "The White Lily (Nymphaea alba), and the Yellow Water Lily (Nuphar lutea), are both abundant in the marshes of the Upper Jordan, but have no connection with the Lily of the Scripture".
