The Lotus and the Water Lilies
Nature Bulletin No. 196-A June 12, 1965
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Seymour Simon, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation
THE LOTUS AND THE WATER LILIES
In midsummer, when the weather is hot and sultry, Mother Nature
puts on an extravagant flower show. She uses just one kind of blossom.
Completely covering hundreds of acres of water in shallow lakes or
sluggish streams, are dense almost impenetrable beds of plants with
huge green leaves like elephant ears and stately creamy-yellow flowers
as fragrant as they are beautiful. This is the American Lotus, closely
akin to the Egyptian lotus and the sacred lotus of the Hindus.
The American lotus grows in quiet water from 2 to 5 feet deep, where
its big leaves and flowers usually stand a foot or two above the surface
on thick stiff stems rising from fleshy rootstalks buried in the mud. It
has several leathery dark green leaves, almost circular and from one to
two or more feet in diameter, each balanced at its center, like a platter,
on the stem. The great flower buds open into blossoms, from 6 to 10
inches across, with broad petals and sepals. These are followed by
conical seed capsules, often the size of a man's fist. From one to two
dozen seeds are set in pits in the fist top of the capsule, which breaks
off and floats about, scattering the seeds.
These seeds, about the size of a white oak acorn, have a very hard
shell. The Indians roasted them and ate them like peanuts, or ground
them into meal to make bread, mush or dumplings. They are starchy,
rich in oil, and have a flavor much like chestnuts. A few of the
descendants of pioneer families in the Illinois valley still make enough
flour from lotus seeds to bake a holiday cake once a year. The
rootstock, which has somewhat the flavor of a sweet potato when
boiled, was also eaten by the Indians. This lotus is found from
Massachusetts to Minnesota and south to Florida and Texas, but it is
thought that the Indians carried it across the Allegheny mountains to
the east coast for its food value. In the Chicago region it is best known
at Grass Lake, one of the Chain O'Lakes in northeastern Illinois, and a
number of the bottomland lakes and backwaters along the Illinois
River where it is called the Yackey Nut or Water Chinquapin.
In the north central states there are a few other native water lilies, near
relatives of the lotus, that also grow in ponds, lake margins and slow-
moving streams. Two species with large floating leaves and large
floating white flowers are often seen in this region but never in beds so
extensive as those of the lotus. One is the Sweet-scented Water Lily,
wonderfully fragrant. The other is the odorless White Water Lily or
Water Nymph. The first has round waxy green leaves, pinkish
underneath and sometimes 12 inches in diameter, with a cleft on one
side that extends into the stem attachment at the center. Its flowers, 3
to 6 inches broad and pure white or tinged with pink, have a center of
many yellow stamens. The water nymph is similar but its flowers and
leaves are larger. Both kinds have long limber rubbery stems and long
rootstocks in the mud.
The Yellow Pond Lily, Cow Lily or Spatterdock, is common east of the
Rockies. Its leaves, with a deep wide notch at the base, are sometimes
held above water by the thick stems. It blooms all summer, bearing
yellow or greenish-yellow cup-like flowers of which the conspicuous
parts are the sepals. Its petals are reduced to little fleshy knobs.
The famous Royal Water Lily, native in the Amazon River of Brazil,
has creamy-white flowers that turn pink or red, and gigantic floating
flat leaves with upturned edges. These leaves, sometimes 6 feet in
diameter, can support the weight of a 150-pound person.
The water lily, says an Indian legend, originated from a falling star.
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Update: June 2012