Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: American Lotus
Prairie Moon Nursery is an excellent native seed and plant company based in Minnesota. I’ve purchased many seeds and plants from them over the years. They just highlighted a plant whose seed pods are very often used in holiday container arrangements and more.
American Lotus (Nelumbo lutea). This aquatic plant is sought after for its huge flower, and also for the decorative dried seed capsules. Very large, 10″ or more across, and very fragrant flowers appear to float on the water surface; unlike Water Lilies the leaves don’t rest on the water surface, they extend above.
Oddly enough, it is listed as noxious in some states and endangered in others; MN lists it as protected. In natural wetland settings, the plant itself is about 6 feet, but only 1-2 feet of that is above the water.
American Lotus needs calm water, without turbulence or strong wave action, to thrive.They also need full sun. The lotus flowers are yellowish white with rich gold centers. They open in the morning and close by late afternoon and reopen the following day.
Several native bees and flies visit the American Lotus to collect pollen. Waterfowl like Mallards and Northern Shovelers, that is not a reference to shoveling snow, eat the seeds.
The Northern Shoveler is a super cool looking duck with a bill shaped like, you guessed it, a shovel!
Muskrats will nibble on the American lotus too. While not really a plant most of us could grow, if you have a pond, consider this native plant. You could also grow it in a very large container.
And back in the day, the large tuberous roots, the size of a human arm were baked like sweet potatoes, the leaves were eaten like spinach and the seeds were prepared to be eaten like nuts or ground into flour. Take a peek at eattheweeds.com