11/09/2011

Final Lotus of the Year

Well as of right now the lotus plants are in the basement for the winter.
dormant lotus plants, buckets, basement, winter
I didn't want the roots to freeze so i brought them inside. When it warms up enough in the spring i'll take them back out.

Here's what i have previously written about trying to grow them:
Sprouting Lotus Seeds

Lotus Update
Lotus in the Sun


Anyway going back a few months ... I was down near the Ohio border again for work and saw the lotus fields. Here they are in August, in a channel off of Lake Erie.
lotus beds, monroe, erie, michigan
A view of all the lotus beds.
american lotus plants, fields, michigan
There were millions of them.
american lotus plants, fields, michigan, ce plant, power plant
The view from the causeway.
american lotus plants, fields, michigan, ce plant, power plant lotus plant, leaves, canal, summer
A view of one of the rivers near a power plant to the north, flowing into Lake Erie.
lotus plants by power plant, lake erie
Here's what the area looks like from above. The water is Lake Erie, the highway is I-75.
aerial photo of lake erie lotus beds, i-75, michigan
Back at my house the hot 90 degree summer days really made them grow big. The sun, heat and humidity outside caused them to take off. Here was one
of my first aerial leaves before it opened up. first aerial lotus leaf lotus aerial leaves, grow in bucket, michigan, summer
There were around four aerial leaves per pot.
lotus aerial leaves, grow in bucket, michigan, summer
The lotus effect on the leaf.



Some close-ups.
water droplet on lotus leaf
lotus effect, water droplet on lotus leaf
lotus leaf bumps
lotus leaf bumps, repel water
lotus leaf bumps, repel water, lotus effect
Back down near Monroe, Michigan i found a place where you can see them up close. It's visible from I-75 but you have to loop around to get there.
map of lotus beds in michigan
panorama of lotus beds
The leaves there grew much bigger then the ones in my backyard.
lotus leaf size
The seed pods which grew from the center of the flower.
american lotus seed pods
By this time a lot of the seed pods had turned brown.
lotus seed pods, from flower
A couple of them broke off their stalks.
dead lotus seed pod
But there was a ton of them. If you figure that each seed pod has around 20 seeds on average, you can see how many seeds are here.

Although like i said earlier, seeds aren't the main way that these grow. They spread from the tubers in the mud, like how grass in your yard spreads.
lotus seed pod, fall, michigan
Here they are in September. The leaves are turning brown and starting to go dormant.
winter lotus leaf
The ones in Monroe had already turned brown.
winter lotus leaf, seed pod
This is right before i cut the leaves off, drained the water and moved them to the basement.
dormant lotus plant
I'm expecting great things next spring. Hopefully all the energy is stored up in the tubers and will cause the plant to shoot up bigger then they grew from a seed this year.

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