Lotus Flower : The Symbol of Purity, Enlightenment

Lotus the word that brings freshness to the mind. Just like the word the flower also looks soothing to the eyes when you see it. The scientific name of the Lotus flower is Nelumbo Nucifera. It is also known by the many other names in different-different parts like in India it is known as Indian Lotus or Sacred Lotuses. Another name for the plant is Egyptian Bean is also known to society. One more famous name is given to the plant-based on its life in water and the name is water lily.

The plants are mainly seen in the region of Flood plains or the places where the slow-moving rivers are found or say Deltaic region. The interesting thing about the plant stem is that it pours hundreds of seeds in the bottom of the reservoir, which makes it possible for the new plants to grow. That’s the best thing about the plant. And it is believed that the seeds of lotus can remain ungerminated for lots of years. Like it is said that the longest period taken by the lotus seed to grow was 1300 years, which looks quite non-practical to believe. But this is the fact as it is proved by the teams of scientists.

The lotus plant has covered a very large part of central and northern India as they can grow easily up to the altitude level of 1400 meters. Besides India, the flower is also found in many other regions in the world like Sri Lanka, virtually all of Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and northern and eastern Australia, etc. These plants are commonly grown in the pond gardens and the plant is the National plant of India and Vietnam both.

What’s The Botany Inside The Plant?

As I said earlier that plant mainly grows in the watery areas which means it is a water-dependent plant. But nowadays practices are available in the market through which we can grow them on the land too. But I am not sure about those how successful they are.

The roots of the plant are dip under the water than a stem coming outward of the water with the leaves floating on the water, which make awesome look to the place where they are grown. Over the leaves, we come to see the lotus flower in the light pinkish shade which just hits the heart. The best thing about the leave is that it can grow up to the size of 80 cm in diameter, which means the size of the leave is as big as the size of the average truck or bus tire.

Besides this researchers also prove that the Lotus plant also shows a brilliant ability to regulate the temperature of its flowers just like the humans do to adapt them according to the situations or other warm-blooded animals. The lotus also has a very interesting ability to survive for thousands of years.

Varieties of Lotus

As with the growing times, everything gets a new variant. Just like these Lotus plant also have many varieties. Let’s discuss some of them:

Rhizome Lotus: The variety produces high-quality rhizome which is very helpful for providing fertilizers and very helpful in cleaning the polluted water. But the only disadvantage of this variety is that they provide us very less amount of flowers. As this variety is made with some other purpose lying behind it.
Seed-Lotus: The variety is for obtaining a large number of carpels. This type of plant has thin, fibrous, and has less output of rhizomes. This plant is mainly preferred in China, Australia, and Vietnam.
Flower Lotus: As it is clear from the name that the plant is somewhat related to flowers. The Plant is specially grown to obtain the max number of flowers number. This variety of plants is very poor in growing the seeds. The petals that we are going to get also differ in number and also the color of the flowers is also different.

Uses of Lotus Plant and Flower:

Human Consumption

As most parts of the lotus are edible. So, it is most commonly used for eating purposes. For.e.g; China produces nearly 70% of lotus just to eat.

Rhizomes: It is well known to most of us that rhizomes are very helpful in making fertilizers. So, the rhizome lotus is mostly grown with the purpose of fertilizers. As we can directly grow them in the land or collect the rhizomes by artificial method then provide it to the field.
Pips: that for the tea, as Koreans like to drink Lotus pip tea.
Seeds: There are two reasons behind the Lotus seeds one is to grow more Motus plants and the other is the edible purpose. As the seeds of Lotus are used as stuffing over many dishes to give it a tangy taste.
Stems: stems are very interesting and taste we commonly used them to prepare a dish name “Kamal gatte ki sabji”
Flowers: Flowers of Lotus are used to prepare soups and tea.

Use in Treatment of Water

It is proved by scientists that lotus is very helpful in the treatment of polluted water. Lotus roots remove heavy metals from the water and make it good to use for agricultural purposes and others. If you want to use lotus treated water for drinking then you can also do so, but the only thing that you have to do is to boil it once for more safety.

Rhizomes in the lotus are very helpful in removing toxic contents from the water.

Use in biotechnology

Currently many scientists or engineers doctors working upon the concept of thermally stable proteins with the help of proteins found inside the lotus plant.

There are many other things for what lotus is used for.

So, that’s all about the lotus flower and I hope you like the words…