LOTUS PLANTS
Hans Christian von Baeyer, a professor of physics at the College of William and Mary, wrote in The Science: The lotus flower name “is actually shared by a number of different plants with blossoms of various colors, but the most celebrated in art and literature is the sacred white lotus of the Hindus: Nelumbo nucifera. Its huge, almond-shaped petals form a shallow bowl around a seedpod that is vaguely reminiscent of the nozzle of a sprinkling can. This magnificent blossom, rising on a tall stalk from a flat base of large, round leaves, is endowed with an exotic aura.” [Source: Hans Christian von Baeyer, The Sciences, January/ February 2000]
Nymphaeceae is a family of water plants which includes the water lilies, the sacred lotus (Nelumbo) and the spectacular Queen Victoria water lily (victoria amagorica). It is a family of 8 genera with 90 species found in fresh waters throughout the world. Where there are ponds, lakes and streams these plants are found. Common species in Asia include the: 1) European White Water Lily (Nymphaea alba); 2) Indian Water Lily (N. Nouchali Burmf); 3) Indian Blue Water Lily (N. Stellata Willd); 4) Barclaya longi folia Walld; 5) Pygmy Water Lily (N. tetra gona Georgi); 6) Nymphaea Stellata Willd; and 7) Sacred Lotus or Egyptian Lotus (Nelumbium speciosum Willd). The Sacred Lotus, is believed to bloom only in sunlight and the white lily, is said to bloom only with moonlight. [Source: Kyi Kyi Hla]
As food the lotus was known to the Greek Homer and was widely used by the Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asians. Its seed may be eaten fresh or dried and used in sweet soups and deserts. The root may be used in salad, boiled in soup, or preserved in sugar and used as desert. From the root may also be extracted a fine starch used by the inhabitants of that area for certain special foods. Lotus seeds are green and resemble large peanuts and come embedded in a cup-like bulb. stalk. It is a very tasty ingredient in steamed duck or as part of the stuffing in duck roast. They can also be eaten raw. Before the era of plastics lotus leaves were used to wrap fresh fish and meat in bazaars.
Lotus, History and Culture
Vishnu on a lotus
The lotus is featured in Asian art and is a major symbol in Buddhism and Hinduism and was showcased in ancient Egyptian architecture. It symbolizes self-development, enlightenment and purity because it is rooted in the mud, grows from through dirty water and without getting dirty and emerges as a thing of beauty. The lotus-eaters in Homer’s Odyssey was not eaters of the lotus found in Asia but rather consumed a prickly shrub with a sweet, mealy fruit found in the Mediterranean. Art and architecture in ancient Egypt was influenced by the blue lotus found there.
Hans Christian von Baeyer wrote in The Sciences: “In Buddhist tradition, lotus blossoms mark each of the seven steps in ten directions taken, paradoxically, by the newborn Buddha. But without a doubt the color of the lotus---or, more properly, its utter absence of color---a blinding whiteness that speaks of unblemished purity, underlies its magical allure.” [Source: Hans Christian von Baeyer, The Sciences, January/ February 2000]
“The lotus was the inspiration for the Phoenician capitals that preceded the Ionic order of design, the sacred flower of Hindu religions and the object of the principal mantra of Tibetan Buddhism: om mani padme hum, which means "Hail, jewel in the lotus." Given the mechanical efficiency of prayer wheels that symbolically repeat those words without pause, the lotus may be the most frequently invoked plant in the world. In various parts of the world it has been a symbol of fertility, birth, beauty, sunlight, transcendence, sexuality and the resurrection of the dead. A twelfth-century Sanskrit poem extols Brahma, "the lotus of whose navel forms thus our universe." But above all, the lotus represents purity.
"What an enchanting paradox, then, that the lotus grows in muddy waters, emerging from them unblemished and untouched by pollution. An ancient Indian text refers explicitly to that wonderful quality: The white lotus, born in the water and grown in the water, rises beyond the water and remains unsoiled by the water. Thus, monks, the [Buddha], born in the world, grown up in the world, after having conquered the world, remains unsoiled by the world.
Lotuses
The Sacred Lotus is a large bloom on a long thick thorny and fibrous stalk. The buds are like elongated bulbs that narrow at the tip. But when the petals open the flowers are fabulous. The color of the sacred lotus is a mix of whitish pink and red. And the white lotus is pristine and pure. The fibrous stalks yield strong threads. which are used for weaving the sacred ornamental robe offered to Buddha Images.
Amid the dirty waters of small streams and rivers as well as from the semi-stagnant pools of water throughout the tropical area of Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, etc.) can be seen the bright green floating leaves and the lovely colors of the Lotus. Such is the contrast of the flower to the environment wherein it grows, that long ago, Buddha used it as a symbol of his teachings. Growing out of the impure, the dirty, and the waste products of civilization, the Lotus lifts high its stately and lovely blossom in such unsullied and pure form that it is an object lesson. [Source: The Religions of South Vietnam in Faith and Fact, US Navy, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Chaplains Division ,1967 ++]
The Lotus flower is a religious symbol as well as a popular food and a sight that creates aesthetic pleasure. There are at least five varieties of the Lotus with the water lily being included, even if not always accepted as a true Lotus; but the Thai people refer to the two types as "string Lotus" and "stalk Lotus" with several types of "string Lotus" with flowers of purple, white to pale blue, and red. There are also at least five kinds of "stalk Lotus", with each having its own characteristics and charm when closely studied. ++
Lotuses and Buddhism
Buddha seated on lotuses
Buddha taught that as the flower achieves its mark in spite of its environment, so may men lose their passions and desires and thereby find release in the spiritual serenity of Nirvana. The Lotus bud is perhaps the single most popular offering of the Buddhist as he worships at his temple, or his home altar. It is quite often held in the folded hands of the listener within the temple as sermons are given or meditation is practiced. Often in the early morning hours as the Buddhist monk makes his way through the streets with the "merit bowl" wherein the laity may earn merit by giving cooked rice, there will be a Lotus bud or two within his hand. Likewise, it has come to form a part of Asian architectural and sculptural motifs. ++
Sometimes the Lotus is compared to the feet, the heart, or the life-giving attributes of the Buddhist female. Moreover it has a history that predates Buddhism as its symbolism was also of Hindu heritage. For instance, Brahman legend tells the story of how when Brahman, the god of the universe, was creating this universe, he went to sleep on the job; as he slept, the Lotus bud appeared from his naval and its petals opened, Vishnu emerged and finished the creation. ++
Buddha used its four stages to symbolize the four types of people and their distance from enlightenment. The four stages are: (1) the Lotus bud deeply submerged as it starts its development; (2) the bud about to reach the surface of the pond; (3) after the bud has cleared the surface, but with leaf and bud still folded; and (4) the bud standing tall and straight with its beauty undefiled by the mire from which it grows. Because of this symbolism, it is always proper to use it as a floral offering to monks when ceremonies are performed or as means of earning merit. The Lotus bud signifies in Buddhism that the worshipper is capable of reaching enlightenment because of the opportunities within his grasp. The unopened bud also tends to last longer than other flowers, and it has the capacity to bloom when placed in water and left before the altar. ++
The lotus motif is a decorative feature found on the architecture of Buddhist shrines and sacred depositories such as chedis (stupas). The upper part of a chedi just below the pinnacle consists of the diamond bud—the pennant-shaped vane. The umbrella is an elongated bulbous portion of the chedi known as the banana bud. Just below it a motif of large lotus petals encircling the chedi. Next is the part of the chedi that resembles a spreading upturned lotus flower. Then comes the a motif of small lotus petals. And lastly is the motif which resembles an inverted lotus flower. These motifs add to the grace and beauty of chedis. The lotus motif also decorates the pinnacles of tiered roofs of monasteries and palaces and there is also a vessel somewhat like a fruit stand decorated with lotus petals for offering food and fruits at sacred Buddha shrines. The exotic lotus is a motif which also adorns the gold thrones on which we place Buddha images.
Lotus Effect
Lotus plants are known their ability to stay clean and dry even though they grow in mucky swamps. The surface of the lotus plant, on a microscopic level, is very rough and jagged, This repels dirty water because the contact area is reduced. Some call this phenomena the Lotus Effects. A German company called Lotusan has developed a paint inspired by the lotus plant that it claims can repel dirt just as effectively as the lotus plant.
Describing research into the lotus effect, Hans Christian von Baeyer wrote in The Sciences: “Wilhelm Barthlott of the University of Bonn in Germany spent 20 years using scanning electron microscope (SEM) survey of the micro-morphology of the skin surface of some 10 000 plants Nothing motivated Barthlott except pure scientific curiosity, and his love of plants.” [Source: Hans Christian von Baeyer, The Sciences, January/ February 2000]
The images from his work were extraordinary. “At magnifications ranging from ninety to 6,000 diameters, they portrayed an unsuspected wonderland of sculpture gardens. Most plant skins in the survey are overgrown with a forest of miniscule, wartlike protuberances, arranged in endlessly repeating patterns. Some of the protuberances look like wooden matches, with round heads on long stalks; others look like furry cones. Some of the structures are mere holes or indentations in an otherwise smooth surface, some resemble crooked hollow tubes swaying like drunken chimneys, and others are jagged shards attached at crazy angles.
Within a couple of years after his monumental summing up, Barthlott and his student Christoph Neinhuis — who later became his colleague at the university — began to notice a peculiar trend. The first step in preparing a plant surface for microscopic examination is a thorough cleaning. Although no plant in nature can escape exposure to dust and grime, some leaves, it seemed, were much easier to prepare than others. They somehow managed to keep themselves better groomed. Unexpectedly, some of the cleanest surfaces turned out to be rougher and more irregular than those of their dirtier cousins. The correlation between cleanliness and surface roughness appeared to be exactly backward. By undertaking a protracted series of microscopic observations of the interactions of leaf surfaces, dirt and water, they eventually uncovered an ingenious though strikingly simple underlying mechanism.
Imagine a leaf is a wooden board through which a forest of nails has been driven from below, so that the points stick out through the top surface. Now think of a fleck of dust magnified many times, so that it resembles a ragged piece of paper landing gently on the bed of nails. The strength of the adhesion between the paper — the dust fleck — and the board depends on the surface area of their mutual contact. Without the nails, the paper would make much better contact. A real dust fleck would stick to the flat board. But because of the pointy nails, the contact area is miniscule and the fleck is barely attached. It hovers on pointe, as it were.
Now imagine that the board is slightly tilted, and that a drop of water, magnified to the size of a great round medicine ball, rolls over the nails toward the dust fleck. (The drop of water, like the dust fleck, is only barely attracted by the nails.) Faced with the choice of balancing on the nails or clinging instead to the big, smooth surface that is rolling over it, the dust fleck quickly pops over onto the ball, sticks to it and gets carried away. Thus drops of water collect dirt from plant surfaces and roll off, leaving the rough surfaces both clean and dry.
In hundreds of experiments and detailed images, Barthlott and Neinhuis have captured and documented the phenomenon: the simple and elegant way leaves have evolved to clean themselves with rain, fog and dew. And nowhere, the investigators found, was the effect more impressive than in the lotus. The surface of the lotus leaf is covered with a dense layer of pointy little moguls [see photomicrograph below]. The botanists had stumbled upon the secret of the lotus. To celebrate their discovery, Barthlott coined the term lotus effect.
To demonstrate the phenomenon dramatically, Barthlott likes to squeeze a droplet of water-soluble liquid glue onto a lotus leaf. He smears the droplet a little with his finger, then steps back to watch. The glue quickly pulls itself back together, re-forming the droplet, and the droplet rolls off the leaf at a stately pace. Not even glue can stick to an area as small as the tip of a microscopic mogul. Just as impressive is Barthlott’s demonstration of the cleaning power of water: when a lotus leaf is covered with a dusting of fine powdered clay, and a drop of water is added, the water rolls downhill, gathering dust as it moves. In its wake is a long, clean path, like the shiny trail of a snail.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.
Last updated February 2025