The incredible Lotus

 The lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) is an aquatic plant of great elegance, and one

Lotus plants fill a pond in Taiwan.

that is highly revered throughout southern and
eastern Asia particularly among Hindu and Buddhist cultures. Because the leaves and the flowers arise literally from the mud, appearing above the water clean and unstained, they are considered symbols of purity, strength and rebirth,. Wherever they can be grown, they are prized members of  aquatic landscapes. 

Religious figures are often depicted
as being borne (or sometimes born)
 on lotus flowers. From Wikipedia,
public domain.

When a Lotus seed germinates, leaves
appear first, roots and rhizome will
emerge later.

I recently found lotus seeds for sale on the internet and decided to try growing them in a tub. I was astonished at how quickly they germinated and grew to maturity. It took less than a week  the seeds to sprout, wrapped in a wet paper towel in a plastic sandwich bag. I waited another week to stick them into the soil, eight inches below the water surface in the tub. The first leaf to emerge to the surface was about an inch across, but each succeeding leaf was a bit larger, and in a few weeks were more than a foot in diameter. They smallest leaves floated on the surface of the water, but later leaves pushed above the surface on sturdy stems. 

I planted the seeds in February, and by late May I was startled to see small flower buds appearing above the water, and these were fully opened in another couple of weeks. So, from seed to flower took scarcely three months. 

The solitary flowers of the Lotus rise to sit above the
leaves that are completely circular in outline.

Lotus plants are sometimes confused with waterlilies, which are in a completely different family. Their remarkable resemblance is a great example of convergent evolution. In waterlilies, however, leaves remain floating on the water surface, and have a deep cleft at the base. Waterlily seeds are borne in a series of separate carpels rather than a flat-headed structure. They are much slower in their growth also, taking three or more weeks to germinate and up to two years to form their first flowers. Waterlilies branched off from the earliest ancestors of flowering plants, while Lotuses are more closely related to Proteas and Sycamores.

Remarkably, though, they have similar pollination strategies. In both waterlilies and lotuses, insects, which often are bearing pollen from another flower, enter the flowers on the first day they are opened. In the evening the flowers close, trapping the insects. Flowers reopen the next day, and the pollen covered insects escape, to repeat the process in another flower.

As Lotus flowers fully open, the distinctive, flat-
headed receptacle, with young ovules embedded
in surface pits, are revealed.

Waterlily leaves have a cleft at the base, and their
separate carpels are hidden in a chamber below
the stamens.

The sacred Lotus of Asia has an American cousin,
Nelumbo lutea, which has yellow flowers. Photo
by Liz West, CC by 2.0.