Plant of the Day

March 17, 2026

LOTUS

The Lotus, as described by Herodotus, is the “Water Lily that grows in the inundated lands of Egypt”: it is the Nymphæa Lotus of Linnæus, and, according to Grecian mythology, owed its origin to a young girl who was deeply in love with Hercules, and who, dying of jealousy, was transformed into the Lotus. With the Greeks, the flower was the symbol of beauty and of eloquence, perhaps because it was reputed to flourish in the fields of Helicon. Young girls twined these flowers into garlands. Theocritus writes of maidens carrying a crown of Lotus for the Princess Helen on her marriage with Menelaus. In a painted temple at Pompeii, the Lotus-flower is represented above a geni or winged god.

The Grecian god of silence (Harpocrates), who was of Egyptian origin, is represented sometimes with a Lotus-flower in his left hand; sometimes seated on a Lotus.

But it is in the East where the Lotus is supreme—a sacred plant not merely revered as a symbol, but even the object of worship in itself, and notably in Hindostan, Thibet, and Nepaul, where it is believed that from its mystic blossom came forth the all-powerful Brahma. In the Hindu theology, Om is the one Supreme Being from whom proceed the great deities Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver), and Siva (destroyer). Before the creation of this world, there existed an immense sea covering its surface; on this vast sea moved the spirit of Om, and quickened into life a golden Lotus, resplendent as the sun, from which emanated the four-formed creative god Brahma, who by the radiance of his countenance dispelled the pervading gloom, and by the light and warmth of his divine presence evoked the earth from the surrounding waters. Vishnu, the pervader or preserver, is represented with four arms: from his umbilicus springs a Lotus-plant, in the beautiful calyx of which Brahma appears seated, ready to accomplish the work of creation. The breath of Vishnu is like the perfume of the Lotus, and he rests and walks, not on the earth, but on nine golden Lotus-plants, carried by the gods themselves. The heaven of Vishnu is described in the Mahâbhârata as blazing with golden edifices studded with innumerable gems. Descending from the superior heaven the waters of the Ganges flow through this Paradise, and here are also lovely diminutive lakes of water, upon the surfaces of which myriads of red, blue, and white Lotus-flowers, with a thousand petals, are seen floating. On a throne glorious as the meridian sun, seated on Lotus-lilies, is Vishnu, and on the right hand is his wife, the goddess Lakshmî, also seated in a Lotus, shining like a continued blaze of lightning, while from her beauteous form the fragrance of the Lotus is diffused through the heaven. Siva, the destroyer (the third member of the Hindoo triad), is represented in many ways, but generally with three eyes; his favourite seat is a Lotus. Buddha, an emanation from Vishnu, like Brahma, first appeared on this hemisphere floating on an enormous Lotus, which spread itself over the ocean. Buddha had for his symbol a Lotus, surmounted by a trident (typical of the Sun with a flame, or the superior heaven).

The emblem of the Sun was called Sûramani (the jewel of the Sun), but when the Svâbhâvikas adopted the Lotus as their symbol of spontaneous generation, they called this ornament Padmi Mani (jewel of the Lotus), and inscribed their temples with these words:—

This sentence forms the Alpha and Omega of Lama worship, and is unceasingly repeated by the devotees of Thibet and the slopes of the Himalayas. For the easy multiplication of this prayer, that extraordinary contrivance, the praying-wheel, was invented. In accordance with the principles of this belief, Jin-ch’au represents all creation as a succession of worlds, typified by Lotus-flowers, which are contained one within the other, until intelligence is lost in the effort to multiply the series ad infinitum.

A legend connected with Buddha runs as follows:—In an unknown town, called Bandnumak, Bipaswi Buddh arrived one day, and having fixed his abiding place on a mountain to the east of Nâg-Hrad, saw in a pool a seed of the Lotus on the day of the full moon, in the month of Chait. Soon afterwards from this Lotus-seed sprang a Lotus-flower, in the middle of which appeared Swayambhû, in the form of a luminary, on the day of the full moon in the month of Asvins.

Another Buddhist legend relates that the King Pându had the imprudence to burn a tooth of Buddha, which was held in high reverence among the Kalingas: but a Lotus-flower sprang from the middle of the flame, and the tooth of Buddha was found lying on its petals.

In Eastern India, it is popularly thought that the god Brahma first appeared on a sea of milk, in a species of Lotus of extraordinary grandeur and beauty, which grew at Temerapu, and which typified the umbilicus of that ocean of sweetness. To that flower is given eighteen names, which celebrate the god’s different beauties; and within its petals he is believed to sleep during six months of the year.

Kâmadeva, the Indian Cupid, was first seen floating down the sacred Ganges, pinioned with flowers, on the blossom of a roseate Lotus.

The Hindus compare their country to a Lotus-flower, of which the petals represent Central India, and the eight leaves the surrounding eight divisions of the country. The sacred images of the Indians, Japanese, and Tartars are nearly always found seated upon the leaves of the Lotus.

The sacred Lotus, as the hallowed symbol of mystery, was deemed by the priests of India and China an appropriate ornament for their religious structures, and hence its spreading tendrils and perfect blossoms are found freely introduced as architectural enrichments of the temples of the East.

Terms of reverence, endearment, admiration, and eulogy have been freely lavished by Indian writers on the flowers of the Lotus, dear to the sick women of their race from the popular belief of its efficacy in soothing painful feelings. Nearly every portion of the human body has been compared by Indian poets to the Lotus; and in one of their works, the feet of the angels are said to resemble the flowers of that sacred plant.

The Persians represent the Sun as being robed with light and crowned with Lotus.

By the Japanese, the Lotus is considered as a sacred plant, and pleasing to their deities, whose images are often seen sitting on its large leaves. The blossom is deemed by them the emblem of purity because it is unsullied by the muddy waters in which it often grows: with the flowers of the Mother-wort it is borne aloft in vases before the body in funeral processions.

The Chinese make the Lotus typical of female beauty: their god Puzza is always represented as seated upon the leaves of the plant.

The Lotus is stated to be held sacred by the Egyptians because it conceals the secret of the gods; from the throne of Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys, it rises in the midst of the waters, bearing on the margin of its blossom the four genii. It is the “Bride of the Nile,” covering the surface of the mighty river, as it rises, with its fragrant white blossom. Like the Indians, the ancient Egyptians represented the creation of the world under the form of a Nymphæa that floated on the surface of the waters. The Lotus was consecrated by the Egyptians to the Sun, and the dawn of day was figured by them as a youth seated upon a flower of the Nymphæa. The god Osiris (the Egyptian Phœbus) is represented as having his head decorated with the sacred Lotus. Oblations of flowers were common among the offerings of the Egyptians to their gods. A papyrus in the British Museum (lent by the Prince of Wales) represents the altar of the god Re or Ra piled up with Lotus-blossoms and other offerings. Upon approaching a place of worship, the ancient Egyptian always held the flower of the Lotus or Agrostis in his hand. A single flower was sometimes deemed a suitable oblation, or a bouquet of the Lotus or Papyrus, carefully arranged in a prescribed form, was offered.

The Lotus typified Upper Egypt; the Papyrus, Lower Egypt. In the British Museum are several Egyptian statues with sceptres of the Lotus; and a mummy with crossed arms, holding in each hand a Lotus-flower. In the mummies of females the Lotus is found, placed there probably to typify regeneration or purification. A bust of Isis emerging from a Lotus-flower has often been mistaken for Clytie changing into a Sunflower.

The Egyptians cultivated three species of Nymphæaceæ—the Nymphæa cerulea, or blue-flowered Lotus; the Nymphæa Lotus, a white-flowered variety, which still grows profusely in Lower Egypt, and which is the flower represented in the mosaic pavement at Præneste; and, lastly, the Nelumbium speciosum, or Sacred Bean—the “Rose Lily” of Herodotus—the true Lotus of the Egyptians, whose blossoms are of a brilliant red colour, and hang over broad peltated leaves: its fruit is formed of many valves, each containing a Nut about the size of a Filbert, with a taste more delicate than that of the Almond. It has been thought that the use of the seeds in making bread, and the mode of sowing them, by enclosing each seed in a ball of clay, and throwing it into the water, may be alluded to in the text, “Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days.” The Nelumbo maintains its sacred character in Africa, India, China, Japan, Persia, and Asiatic Russia; it has, however, disappeared from Egypt.

The Arabians call the Lotus, Nuphar; and the Syrians regard it as a symbol of the cradle of Moses, and typify, also, the Ark of Noah by the same flower.

The collar of the order of the Star of India is composed of the heraldic Rose of England, two Palm-branches crossed, and a Lotus-flower, alternating with each other.