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JXB Advance Access originally published online on June 3, 2009
Journal of Experimental Botany 2009 60(9):2461-2464; doi:10.1093/jxb/erp166
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© The Author [2009]. Published by Oxford University Press [on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology]. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Plant Culture

Symbolism of plants: examples from European-Mediterranean culture presented with biology and history of art

JULY: Lotus

Riklef Kandeler1 and Wolfram R. Ullrich2*

1Institute of Botany, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Gregor Mendelstr. 33, 1180 Wien, Austria
2Institute of Botany, Darmstadt University of Technology, Kirchbergweg 6, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany

* To whom correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: ullrichcw@online.de

The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below.


   JULY: Lotus
 
On hot summer days we like to see our ponds and small eutrophic lakes covered with the white, pink or yellow flowers of water lilies. Everybody knows how Claude Monet became so fascinated by his ‘nymphéas’ that he painted them in all situations, but the Nymphaeaceae have played a role in symbolism for over 4000 years. Even more important in Asian culture, particularly in Buddhism, has been the Indian lotus, Nelumbo nucifera (Nelumbonaceae). In literature and mythology, the term lotus (in Greek lotos) has been used to cover both families, relating the high symbolic and cultural importance of the lotus in great parts of the world.


   Biology, water lilies (Nymphaeaceae)
 
All the nymphaeas live in still or slow water and have a condensed shoot . . . [Full Text of this Article]


   Symbolism: nymphaea flowers in pharaonic Egypt
 

   Biology: Indian lotus
 

   Symbolism: Indian lotus
 

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