Exotic Beauty (41) : Indian Lotus

Exotic Beauty (41) : Indian Lotus

The past years I made several visits to the conservatories of the National Botanic Garden of Belgium where 10.000 (!) plant and tree species originating from the tropics and the subtropics are growing in the greenhouses over there.

Thanks to the warm and moist climate in the conservatories and the intensive maintenance, it’s really amazing what an immense great variety of exotic flowers from all over the world can be seen there, even in the cold winter season !
Flowers whose natural habitat is situated in the rainforest, the mountain forest, isolated islands, deserts, etc……. Places that most of us will never or seldom visit.
Some of the flowers are very rare, extremely colourful or specially shaped.
Others were introduced in Europe by men and became a cultivated species or an ornamental houseplant.

I selected the –to my personal taste- most beautiful flowers that I saw there and made a series of them.

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In English also known as Sacred lotus.
Dutch name : Indische lotus (ook Heilige lotus genaamd)
German name : Indische Lotusblume
Latin name : Nelumbo nucifera

Country of origin : tropical South-east Asia, Australia

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A common misconception is the Indian lotus being considered as a water lily, which is wrong.

Under favorable circumstances the seeds of this plant may remain viable for many years. The oldest recorded lotus germination comes from 1300 years old seed that was recovered from a dry lake bed in north eastern China.