Jan–MarApr–JunJul–SepOct–Dec
Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
← Explore Plants
Plant · P-361
American Lotus
Nelumbo lutea
American lotus yields three separate harvests from one plant: a rhizome that bakes sweet and mealy like sweet potato and stores for months after an autumn dig, a chestnut-flavored seed eaten raw, cooked or dried into flour, and edible leaves, young stems and seed oil. It was once a staple food crop of North American peoples and still grows wild enough to earn the name duck acorn, since geese and ducks strip the seed heads off the water. It needs standing water in full sun and cannot grow in shade, and left alone it spreads by rhizome fast enough to close over an entire pond's surface - digging the rhizome for the kitchen doubles as the only management it needs.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 4–10
- Soil
- Sand · Silt · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Wet
Vertical layer
Aquatic- Soil pH
- 4.6–8.7
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 3–6 ft
- Mature spread
- 3–4 ft
- Plant spacing
- 5–12 ft
- Root type
- Rhizome
- Spread pattern
- Root
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
Blue Flag Iris
Iris versicolor
Blue Flag Iris is a rhizomatous perennial of marshes, pond margins and wet meadows, grown for its blue to violet flowers from May into August…
Aquatic · USDA 3–9
Bulrush
Schoenoplectus acutus
Bulrush is a tall wetland sedge that forms dense rhizome colonies along pond margins, lake edges and slow streams, growing several feet tall…
Aquatic · USDA 3–10
Cattail
Typha latifolia
Cattail is a tall wetland perennial that colonizes the shallow margins of ponds, ditches and marshes, forming dense stands of sword-like…
Aquatic · USDA 3–10
Lotus
Nelumbo nucifera
Sacred lotus grows from a rhizome buried in pond mud, sending up round leaves well above the waterline and flowers that open for only a few…
Aquatic · USDA 4–10
Mosquito Fern
Azolla filiculoides
Water Fern is a tiny free-floating fern that carries its own built-in nitrogen fixer, a cyanobacterium living in a pocket inside every leaf,…
Aquatic · USDA 7–10
Narrowleaf Cattail
Typha angustifolia
Narrowleaf Cattail is a fast-growing wetland perennial that colonizes pond margins and shallow water with dense rhizome mats, reaching about…
Aquatic · USDA 2–11
The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
- Locked research reference
- Locked research reference
- Locked research reference