Description
One of my favourite memories as a child was a visit to the water lily pond in Adelaide’s Botanical Gardens.
Every summer Adelaide Botanic Garden’s Nelumbo Pond springs to life, with its sacred lotus flowers (Nelumbo nucifera) .
For centuries, the lotus has been a divine representation of sexual purity and non-attachment and a symbol of fertility, beauty and prosperity. Also new beginnings, as the flower rises up from the mud.
Many parts of the Sacred lotus are edible including the rhizomes, young leaves, flowers, and the seeds. The rhizomes and seeds are eaten in some Asian countries. The stamens are used in some medicines and the milky juice from the stalks is used in India to help with diarrhoea.