A beautiful aquatic perennial

1. LOTUS
ANDREW L MYRTHONG
2014-12-126

2. Classification
Kingdom : Plantae
Division : Magnoliophyta
Class : Magnoliopsida
Order : Proteales
Family : Nelumbonaceae
Genus : Nelumbo
Species : nucifera

3. Introduction
• Synonym: Ambal, Thamarai, Padma, Ambuja, Pankaja,
Sacred Water lily, Bean of India, Kamal, Kanwal
• It is an aquatic perennial
• National flower of India
• Symbol of purity, holiness and immortality
• Beneficial (medicinal) and cultural (religious) uses
• Nelumbo is a ‘ceylonese’ term

4. Description
• It has broad flattening leaves and bright fragrant flowers
• Leaves and flowers remains afloat
• Long stems that contain air spaces
• Petals boat shaped and overlaps in a symmetrical pattern
• Rhizomes function as the roots and spreads out horizontally
through the mud below the water
• Leaves are 50cm in diameter

5. • Leaf production maximum in rainy (June-Aug) and minimum
in winter (Dec-Feb)
(Minimol, J. S. 2004)
• Flowers are single, fragrant, showy, magnificent
• Velvety white, cream, greenish white, yellow, pink, rose, red,
mauve etc.
• Seeds are hard and dark brown

6. Species
Two important species:
 Nelumbo lutea: New World (North America)
 Nelumbo nucifera: Old World (SE Asia and Australia)
Other species:
 N. flavescens - strongly scented lemon yellow
 N. alba - bold and beautiful

7. Fig: Nelumbo lutea Fig: Nelumbo nucifera

8. Varieties
• Grossherzog Ernst Ludwig (N. flavescens x N. osiris)
• N. n. var. alba grandiflora (syn. N. grandiflora)
• N. n. var. alba striata (syn. Empress)
• N. n. var. alba plena (syn. Shiroman) – cut flower
• Angel Wings – tulip shaped
• Chawan basu – tub culture
• Charles Thomas – small tubs and pools
• Maggie Belle Slocum – tub culture
• Momo Botan – small tubs and pools
• Mrs. Perry D. Slocum

9. Agroclimatic condition
• Temperature above 200C
• Altitude upto 2000 m above MSL
• Long day length accelerates rhizome elongation and
upright leaf production
• Short day length promotes rhizome enlargement and
inhibits upright leaf production

10. Propagation
• Seeds and rhizomes
• Seeds have extremely high viability (1000-2000 years)
• Due to the hard shells and nearly impermeable seed coat
• Scarification (sand paper rub) and stratification (in H2SO4)
• Feb-Mar (tropical & subtropical) and April-May
(temperate)
• Transplanted at 2 – leaf stage (10 DAG)
• 10 – 12 kg seeds per hectare
• Highly heterozygous

12. Rhizomes
• Three noded tip portion is the best
propagule (Minimol, J. S. 2004)
• Planted horizontally 7-10cm deep
• Fill the pools with clay soil and
FYM @ 3:1 to a depth of 45-50 cm
• 100g neem cake and diammonium
phosphate
• Water should not be less than 30cm

13. Culture
• Damp soil with pH 5.5 – 7.0
• Open and sunny situation
• Sunlight at least 6 hours a day
• Best time for planting is April
• Place a stone over the rhizome to keep it securely in position
• Spacing: 2-3m (R – R) and 0.7-1m (P – P)
• Plant density: 4,115 to 7,936 plants/ha

14. Fertilization
• Mature crop require more K and less N
• Careful fertilization of young plants to prevent burning
• Doses maybe split in 3-4 applications
• In India media supplemented with
• FYM @ 5kg/m2
• Neem cake @ 100g/m2
• Diammonium phosphate @ 25g/m2 and
• MoP @ 25g/m2 as basal dose 15 days prior to planting
(Goel et al., 2001)

15. Container management
• Round containers preferable
• Fabric pond pots or no hole
plastic pots is recommended
• Three - fifth of the pots filled
with rich and wet pond soil
• Irrigate after 2 days when the
plants have firmly attached to
the mud

16. Pond management
• Water management issues (acquisition, movement and storage)
• Relatively flat, expansive and close to a reliable source of a large volume of fresh water
• Size depends upon water availability
• Soil capacity to retain water
• If not plastic liners should be used
• Shallow ponds with soil depth 30cm to 1m and surface water range 10cm to 1.5m
• Taro, sweet potato and yam bean are good companion/rotation crops

17. Daily care
• Maintain water temperature at 21oC or 70oF
• Provide as much sun as possible
• Remove any foliage that may block the sun
• Prune as and when necessary -snip away yellow leaves
• Fertilize once in two weeks
• Reposition the pots before the first frost
• Lifted rhizomes/tubers can stored in a cool frost free location until
late spring

18. Weeds
Water hyacinths, Water lettuce, Azolla, Typha and Cyperus
papyrus
• Simazine @ 3-6 ppm or Monuron @ 4-12 ppm
• KMnO4 to control azolla
• CuSO4 used if no livestock present

19. Diseases
Lotus leaf spot(Cercospora sp.)
• Removed affected leaves and burnt
• Spray mild solution of Bordeaux mixture @ 2-3 days
interval
Phytophthora root rot
• Uproot affected plants along with adhering soil and
destroy

20. Insect-Pests
Beetles (Galerucella nymphaeae), aphids and caterpillars
• Solution containing Bt parasitise and kill the larva
• Jetting the foliage with fresh water to dislodge them in
water to be swallowed by inhabitants of the water

21. Precautions
• If growing from seed, do not fertilize during the first year of growth
• Begin fertilizing after a lotus tuber sprouts six leaves
• Stop fertilizing in the middle of July - to prepare plants for dormancy
• Avoid liquid pesticides as they burn the leaves
• Avoid excessive fertilization
• To help to prevent mildew and rotting, store them in living
sphagnum moss
• Leaves and tubers to be consumed only after cooking

22. Harvesting
• Depends on environmental conditions
• Leaves and flowers collected in April
• Seeds are collected in August
• Rhizomes are harvested after 120 days in warm climates
and after 150-180 days in cold climates
• Water is drained and rhizomes are dug
• Mechanical harvesting by using a backhoe with a
specialised fork

24. Uses
Lotus flowers, seeds, young leaves and rhizomes are all
edible
• Seeds can be eaten as nuts
• The tuberous roots are baked as sweet potatoes
• Leaves are eaten like spinach
• Rhizomes maybe roasted, pickled, fried as chips
• Honey collected is used as a tonic (Padmammadjhu or
Makaranda) to treat eye disorders

25. • The dried seed heads, for decorative purposes and for dried
flower arrangement
• A unique fabric from the lotus plant fibres is produced in
Myanmar
• Flowers are used for the production of perfume
• Anti diabetic, anti obesity, anti depressant, anti
inflammation, insomnia, diarrhoea, fever, haemorrhoids
and leprosy