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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-275
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 days at a time. Nearly every part is food: the crisp starchy rhizome, seeds that pop like popcorn, young leaves as greens, and mature leaves used to wrap food for steaming. It needs full sun and warm water to flower well, and the same digging that harvests the rhizome every couple of years also keeps its spreading rhizome mat contained. A dense stand also shades the whole pond surface, cutting evaporation on a scorching summer day.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 4–10
- Soil
- Silt · Loam
- Moisture
- Wet
Vertical layer
Aquatic- Soil pH
- 5.5–7.3
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 3–6 ft
- Mature spread
- 3–4 ft
- Plant spacing
- 3.9 ft
- Root type
- Rhizome
- Spread pattern
- Root
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
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…
Aquatic · USDA 4–10
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
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
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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