One smoldering Summer afternoon, while my fellow golfers peered at their distant target and discussed possible yardages, my attention deficit disorder took command and I wandered off into the nettles and cattails to the edge of a pond. One more step brought me to a clearing where suddenly I could see soccer-ball-sized pastel colored yellow and pink flowers on long-stemmed, water plants, out on the pond.
Dang those are pretty! They've been around since dinosaur days. Lotuses.
The Backyard Science group regularly publishes The Daily Bucket, which features observations of the world around us. What's in your backyard? Funny insects, unusual birds, pretty flowers, healthy vegetables, or shy snakes?Any of these and much more are worthy additions to the Bucket and its comments. Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment, and provide a picture if you can. Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located. Each note is a record that we can refer to as we try to understand the patterns that are unwinding around us.
The American lotus is a native, emergent aquatic plant, of the species N. lutea. American Indians may have carried it into North America as a food source, from its origins in the Southeast US and Central America. While Wiki states the local version is yellow, some of these lotuses are also pink.
N, lutea has cross-bred with Nelumbo nucifera, AKA the Indian (or Sacred) Lotus, which is native to Tropical Asia and Queensland, Australia. The Wiki pictures of the Indian lotus look more like these pink lotuses.
I did not expect there lotuses would be the Asian variety, because they have overwintered and flourished in this painfully non-tropical location, west of Portland, Oregon for over 20 years.
They can be hardy, having appeared in China and adjacent parts of Russia 135 million years ago. Seeds found in China that were 1300 years old have been germinated.
The lotus is the national flower of India and Vietnam, and possesses a wide range of mystical, chemical, and medical properties and uses. You can eat the entire plant. I'll try that. Some say its ingestion alters consciousness. I may try that too.
Some studies suggest it inhibits cancer and cures other ailments.
I like them for their prehistoric-looking seedhead.
I've been unsuccessfully trying to transplant them from the golf course pond to my backyard ponds for several years. I may have done a few more things right for this year's transplanting, and I'll try to grow them from seeds this year also. That big flower in the lower center is a lotus, and you can see the tall stems with a seed head to the right and behind the big flower. The smaller flowers in this pond are unrelated water lilies.
Now It's Your Turn What's interesting to you? Please post your own observations and your general location in the comments. I'll respond after lunchtime because I work tomorrow morning.
"Spotlight on Green News & Views" will be posted every Saturday at 1pm and Wednesday at 3:30 pm Pacific Time on the Daily Kos front page. Be sure to recommend and comment in the diary.