Lotus

Description:

Pink flowers, semi-spherical fruit, floats on water.

Habitat:

Pond

Notes:

The Lotus features a lot in Asian art, cuisine, poetry, etc. The seeds are steamed and eaten in Cambodia. The Chinese make soup with the hollow stems. The fibrous stems inspire the Chinese proverb 藕断丝连 (ou3 duan4 si1 lian2) meaning that a relationship may be broken but there will always be a connection between the parties, just like the fibres that connect the two halves of a broken lotus stem. The Lotus flower is also depicted as a symbol of moral perfection despite a corrupt environment, because it grows out of the mud but is not tainted by the dirt 出于汙泥而不染 (chu1 yu2 wu1 ni2 er2 bu4 ran3). Spotted in the Japanese Garden, Singapore