The lotus flower: 'Most unique' of all plants

Lotus flowers are loved by the Chinese people because, in the words of Cao Zhi (192-232), "Of all the plants in the world, the lotus flower is the most unique."

Lotus flowers are the earliest occurring angiosperms in the world. Long before the advent of humanity, lotus flowers were distributed in water across the globe. During geological changes, particularly when temperatures were low during the Ice Age, most plants in the northern hemisphere became extinct but lotus flowers survived. Lotus flowers are known as "living fossils" along with other relic plants, such as metasequoia and ginkgo in China and sequoia and tulip poplar in America.

There are many types of lotus flowers, including nearly 300 root lotuses, nearly 50 seed lotuses and about 1,000 flower lotuses. Flower lotuses can produce very large flowers and live in very deep water, below 1.5 meters. They are ideal for building wetlands. They can also be very small in size, with stems of less than 10 centimeters. They can be easily placed in vases with 18 cm openings at home. Lotus flowers are perennial aquatic plants. The original types are very large, possess a few types of petals and are pink in color. Long periods of human cultivation have resulted in three classifications: those notable for their roots, seeds and flowers. Flower lotuses have various types of patterns (few-petal, semi-double petal, double petal, heavy petal and multiple petal) and colors (pink, scarlet, white, secondary colors and yellow). People have different tastes and preferences. In the eyes of painters and photographers, few-petal lotus flowers are natural and unrestrained, heavy-petal lotus flowers are dignified, red-petal lotus flowers are bright in color and white-petal lotus flowers are plain and elegant.

Lotus flowers have great ornamental value throughout their lifecycles. They bloom one after another. Therefore, though each flower only lasts three to four days, a group of them in a temperate area can bloom for one-and-a-half months in northern China and up to three months in southern China. Tropical lotus flowers in Guangdong can bloom from mid-May to late December. In Southeast Asia, lotus flowers bloom year-round. A tropical variety bred in Wuhan, Hubei province can bloom from mid-June to early November. There are very few flowers who bloom for as long a period as lotus flowers.

They are also very adaptive to local environments. They are not afraid of the scorching sun, and bloom in hot summer when there are few other flowers blooming. They are resistant to cold temperatures. Even in the freezing winter, they can survive under frozen ice as long as their roots are kept in water or mud at 5 degrees Celsius. Lotus flowers are not sensitive to soil, though mildly acidic, organic clay loams are ideal. They can survive and flourish in different types of soil across the country. In the Nansha Wetland near the estuary of the Pearl River in Guangzhou, a large area of lotus flowers flourishes in highly alkaline water beside a forest of mangroves, which grow only in seawater.