American Lotus – A Little Bit of Oriental Mystery Right Here in the Ozarks

The mention of lotus blossom conjures up images of Chinese maidens strolling under decorative umbrellas beside garden ponds in the Forbidden City.  Or an Egyptian river boatman dressed in white robe and red fez wading in the Nile and handing a freshly plucked blossom up to an English matron waiting aboard her tour boat.  Lotus blossoms frequently appear in oriental art, such as the pedestal for images of the Budha or decorative carvings in Hindu temples.  My own first direct encounter with the lotus was in the form of small slabs of sparkling white and pleasantly crunchy vegetable served at a formal reception dinner during an academic exchange at the University of Beijing.  The oblong slices of these root vegetable pieces were punctured with round tube-like holes that were handy in picking them up with the heavy steel chopsticks provided as our only utensil.  When I asked my host, Prof Zehao, what exactly this condiment was, he called it lotus root.  The crisp feel of the exotic root seemed like a real taste of the orient.  A few times before that, any thoughts of exotic lotus on these American shores were assumed to be related to formal planting situations in public gardens and private estate ponds.  Besides, the lotus was just another water lily, and we had plenty of our own.  Except that I was to find both premises wrong.  We do have an American lotus, and it is very different from other water lilies.

     Lotus awareness dawned shortly after I arrived in Fayetteville to join the staff at UARK Geosciences.  I had organized a department field trip to the Tulsa area offices of a geophysical contractor I had worked with over the years.  The company graciously provided a catered lunch along with demonstration of equipment and software.  During the van trip to and from Tulsa I had a front window seat and could look at the landscape while the driver kept eyes on the road.  The Cherokee Highway runs through some very rural rangeland where you would never expect formal water gardens.  But I clearly saw shallow ponds filled with the foliage and seed pods of lotus.   That prompted a check of my handy Hunter Wildflowers of Arkansas volume to find there is a listing for American lotus (Nelumbo lutea) as a native wildflower.  But even there, the presentation is deceptive.  The photo displayed alongside that of the familiar fragrant water lily (Nympnaea odorata) makes them look very similar.   You see an attractive rosette of many petals embedded in a background of round leaves.  Also shown on the same page is the yellow pond lily or spatterdock (Nuphar luteum) with its smaller and not very open form that is compensated by the brightness of its yellow.

     When seen in the field, American lotus provides a distinctly different aspect as its larger round leaves are often protruding way above the surface of the water and nowhere near the horizontal floating form of other water lilies.  In fact, lotus colonies often are located adjacent to standing water where ground is only water-logged during the spring runoff but left high and almost dry during the summer season.  Their large, round leaves can be seen floating flat on the surface of the water early in the year, but then stand upright in virtually closed rank as water levels recede during the summer.  One especially notable characteristic of the American lotus is the rampant way in which it grows.  The leaves often appear in dense patches covering acres of ground in wetlands.

     This was a contrast to the sedate and charming nature of small rafts of fragrant water lily leaves and the few scattered blooms seen while paddling along canoe trails in the Minnesota Boundary Waters.  Carol Gracie in her Summer Wildflowers of the Northeast suggests that our lotus can be downright invasive.  She notes that lotus corms can expand outward by as much as 45 feet in a single growing season.  Lotus planted in a large but shallow pond could completely cover what had been scenic open water in just a year or two.

     American lotus can probably be labeled as another demonstration of the Asa Gray disjunct phenomenon where nearly identical plant species are located in southeastern North America and southeastern China as isolated enclaves of a former widespread Arcto Tertiary flora.  In fact, N Lutea is sometimes considered only a subspecies of the Asian N nucifera because of the close similarity between the two versions of lotus.  The Latin name for Asian lotus (“nut bearing”) is derived from the fact that the hard-shelled seeds embedded in the holes in showerhead-like pods can be roasted and eaten like a tree nut.  The seeds develop inside the distinctive upright pods in sockets where they can be heard rattling around after the pods ripen and the seeds fill out.  Later on, the pods rotate downward from their erect position and drop into the water to disintegrate.  The seeds are thus released to be moved about by waves and current to new locations.  There they can remain viable for a very long time, as demonstrated by successful propagation of lotus seeds upon discovery more than a millennium after they were entombed in Egypt.  Seen up close, the lotus leaves are completely circular with the stem connected at the center and without the wedge-shaped openings on fragrant water lily or spatterdock.  All three have stomata located on the upper surface of leaves so that they can exchange atmospheric gases when floating on water.  But most lotus leaves grow up and out of the water by as much as three feet, with initial tubular leaves unfolding like a scroll – not to mention the erect, showerhead-like seed pods.  This adds a rather unique look to lotus infested marshland compared to the sedate rafts of other water lily colonies.

     Native Americans made use of lotus lily in their diet, consuming roots, seeds and even the stems.  Roots and stems contain hollow, gas-filled openings which must help aerate them in water-logged mud.  Lotus roots are a nutritious source of food for such marsh inhabitants as muskrats.  Gracie cites vast areas of lotus on the shores of Lake Michigan that were once prized for waterfowl hunting before trapping regulations and the depression of the fur market caused muskrat populations to sharply rebound, but now are much more limited in extent.  Of course, the main attraction for us is the lotus flower.  Like other water lilies, the flowers have a two-day blooming cycle.  On the first day the male flower parts (stamens) are furled and unexposed, so that female parts (stigmas) are exposed to cross-pollination by insects attracted to the nectar within the blossom.  On the second day, the female parts have been pollinated and visiting insects are dusted with pollen to take to nearby flowers at the earlier female receptive stage.  Self-pollination is sometimes possible, but this sequence makes cross-pollination much more likely.

     After all this hype you may want to see American lotus in its natural habitat here in the Ozark region, especially where a boardwalk trail provides close access to otherwise treacherous swampy ground.  One of easiest access points is at Osage Park adjacent to the Bentonville city airport on state route 102 just south of the city square.  The park has an extensive boardwalk trail around and through a large beaver swamp embedded in wet prairie.  Peak flowering season starts in mid-July and extends into August.  At that time, you can also catch the great display of rose mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos) full of large white flowers with deep red centers, growing in abundance around the edges of the lotus patches.  Late season prairie flowers such as Arkansas ironweed, swamp milkweed, and tickseed sunflower will also be starting to appear in August.  If you visit, there are picnic tables and shelters, food trucks and even a local brewery immediately in the area.  Flowers, food and beer – what more could you ask for?