What Are Lotus Plants? A Clear Beginner's Guide

Lotus plants are large, flowering water plants that root in the mud of ponds and lakes and raise round leaves and showy flowers high above the water. In the strict botanical sense, a lotus is any plant in the genus Nelumbo, which has only two living species: the sacred lotus of Asia and Australia, and the yellow American lotus.

That one-sentence answer hides a lot of interesting biology. In this guide we explain what lotus plants are, how their parts work, how they grow through the year and why people have treasured them for at least three thousand years.

The short answer

• What it is: a perennial aquatic plant, genus Nelumbo, family Nelumbonaceae.
• Species: Nelumbo nucifera (sacred, Indian or Asian lotus) and Nelumbo lutea (American or yellow lotus).
• Where it grows: shallow, still or slow fresh water with deep, rich mud, in warm summer climates.
• What makes it special: self-cleaning leaves, flowers that warm themselves, seeds that can survive for centuries, and deep meaning in many religions.
• What it is not: a water lily. The two look alike but are not closely related.

The parts of a lotus plant

Rhizome (the "root")

What cooks call lotus root is actually a rhizome, a swollen underground stem. It grows in sausage-like segments through the mud, storing starch for winter. Cut one across and you see a ring of round holes. These are air channels that carry oxygen down from the leaves to the buried stem, which would otherwise suffocate in airless mud.

Leaves

Lotus leaves are shield-shaped circles, with the stalk joined to the middle of the underside. Young leaves may float, but most rise above the water. Their surface is covered in microscopic bumps and wax, which makes water roll off in beads and carry dirt with it. Scientists call this the "lotus effect."

Flowers

Each flower sits alone on a stiff stalk. It has many petals arranged around a flat, yellow, cone-shaped centre called the receptacle, which holds the female parts. A ring of yellow stamens surrounds it. Wild flowers are pink, white or pale yellow, and they are often fragrant.

Seed pod

After pollination the petals fall and the receptacle grows into the well-known seed head that looks like a showerhead or a wasp nest. Each hole holds one hard seed. As the pod dries it turns brown and bends over, dropping seeds into the water.

Lotus life cycle: from seed to bloom

1. Seed. The seed has a very hard coat that keeps water out. In nature it may lie in the mud for years until the coat wears down. Growers nick the coat with a file to make it sprout within days.
2. Sprouting. Once water gets in, a shoot appears and the first small leaves float up to the surface.
3. Growth. As days warm, the rhizome spreads and sends up taller leaves that stand clear of the water.
4. Flowering. In midsummer, flower buds rise on their own stalks. Each flower lasts only about three days, opening in the morning and partly closing in the afternoon.
5. Seeding and dormancy. Seed pods ripen over several weeks. In autumn the leaves die back, and the plant survives winter as starch-filled rhizomes below the frost line.

Where do lotus plants grow?

The sacred lotus is native to a wide arc of Asia, from Pakistan and Kashmir through India and Bangladesh to Southeast Asia, China, Japan and northern Australia. The American lotus grows wild from the eastern United States to northern South America. Both like:

• still or slow-moving water about 15 to 120 cm deep;
• deep, rich mud or clay for the rhizomes;
• full sun for most of the day;
• a warm summer, since growth starts only when the water warms up (roughly above 21 °C or 70 °F).

Lotus is widely planted in ornamental ponds around the world. In some places outside its native range, including parts of the United States, the sacred lotus is treated as potentially invasive because it can cover shallow water with dense stands.

Lotus or water lily? The difference in one minute

Lotus (Nelumbo) and water lilies (Nymphaea) are a classic example of look-alikes. Botanists now place the lotus closer to plane trees and proteas than to water lilies. The easy differences are that lotus leaves are complete circles held above water, while water lily leaves have a slit and float flat; and that a lotus flower has a flat "showerhead" centre that becomes a seed pod in the air. Our full guide to the types of lotus shows a diagram.

Remarkable lotus facts

• Ancient seeds: lotus seeds found in a dried lakebed in northeastern China were radiocarbon-dated to around 1,300 years old and still germinated.
• Self-heating flowers: the sacred lotus keeps its flowers warm, roughly 30 to 35 °C, even on cool mornings, probably to comfort the beetles that pollinate it.
• Self-cleaning leaves: the lotus effect has inspired water-repellent paints, glass coatings and fabrics.
• Lotus silk: in Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam, weavers pull fine fibres from lotus stalks to make a rare, costly fabric.

You can read more about these abilities in what does a lotus flower do?

How people use the lotus

Few plants are used as completely as the lotus. Almost every part ends up in a kitchen somewhere:

• Rhizomes are sliced into stir-fries, soups, pickles and curries. In Pakistan and North India they are cooked as bhein or kamal kakdi; in Kashmir as nadru; in Japan as renkon.
• Seeds are eaten fresh, roasted or as sweet lotus seed paste, the classic filling of mooncakes.
• Leaves are used as wrappers for steamed rice dishes.
• Stamens are used in Vietnam to scent green tea.

Lotus also appears in traditional medicine systems, and modern lotus supplements are sold for many purposes. Research on these uses in humans is limited, so talk with a qualified health professional before taking any lotus product.

Finally, the lotus is one of the world's great symbols. In Hinduism and Buddhism it stands for purity and spiritual awakening because it rises clean from muddy water. We explain this in depth in lotus flower symbolism across cultures.

Frequently asked questions