The Water Lily and Lotus have been cultivated as food and medicine for thousands of years. In many cultures the plant is used in rituals and ceremonies due to the mild psychoactive effects it has once eaten or drunk as a tea. Throughout the regions where they are found they have been harvested as food as the leaves are used as a green vegetable, and roots as a starch. China is the largest producer of Lotus root, yet this is almost purely N. nucifera.