#nelumbo lutea

[faguscarolinensis]

Nelumbo lutea / American Lotus at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[the-poisongarden]

Did you know North America has a native lotus? Nelumbo lutea or yellow lotus is one of only two wild lotus species left on the planet. This prehistoric giant produces the largest flower in North America - the size of your head! The leaves average two feet across. It grows from the Great Lakes down to Central America and the Caribbean. It is edible, medicinal, mildly poisonous, and mildly psychoactive. Many Native American tribes believed it had mystical powers.

More info:

• Native American Ethnobotany Database

• Plants for a Future Database

• Wikipedia

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

[obsessive-compulsive-destroyer]

[cedar-glade]

Dormancy and bloom, they may seem like stark contrasts of each other , and in a sense they are; but, it’s all a part of phenology. Both are fascinating and beautiful. 

Nelumbo lutea, Eastern Yellow Water Lotus,

Glenwood Gardens, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Phenology is a concept that means the collective ecological interactions and the development lifecycle a plant undergoes in a year from dormancy to breaking dormancy and the life cycle between that contains growth.

Even in dormancy we see the plant function, In the left photograph we can see the decay that occurs along stems has a weakened abscission zone that causes a nod and forces the seeds to drop out as the seed pod dries and shrinks. 

[vacationstims]

♡ | lotuslandgarden on Instagram

[spatheandspadix]

Meg took a cool picture of me at The Club tonight

[that-crazy-scorpio-man]

This year was a disappointing one for lotuses.  The bayou wasn’t covered with them like last year.  Not sure the factors that had a hand in it.

[keithcurrypochy]

American Lotus (Nelumbo lutea) bloom on Paynes Prairie (which I guess should be called Alachua Lake now).

Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, FL