Description
Lotus plant is a perennial aquatic herb. Fleshy roots grow breadthways, with inflated nodes, many longitudinal vent holes, and exogenous whisker-like adventitious roots. Leaves grow from nodes and expose on the surface of the water. Stout, cylindrical, and spiny petiole grows in the middle of back of blade. Blade is round, 25 to 90cm in diameter, and with entire or slightly wavy margin. Flowers, 10 to 20cm in diameter, grow solitarily at the top of pedicel. Pedicel, scattered with small spines, is as long as or slightly longer than petiole. After flowering it forms seedpod of the lotus, which is in the shape of inverted cone, 5 to 10cm in diameter, with 20-30 holes, each hole containing a fruit. Nuts are oval or ovate and 1.5 to 2.5cm long. Leathery pericarp is hard and dark brown when it is ripe. Seeds are ovate or elliptic, 1.2 to 1.7cm long, and with red or white testa. Flowering period is from June to August and the fruiting period is from August to October. Ecological habitat is ponds, lakes or paddy fields. Now it grows in the wild or is cultivated. Main chemical constituents include roemerine, nuciferine, nornuciferine, armepavine, pronuciferine, N-nornuciferine, anonaine, liriodenine, asimilobine, N-norarmepavine, lirinidine, quercetin, leucocyanidin, leucocyanidin, nelunboside, oxalic acid, succinic acid, malic acid, citric acid, tartaric acid, gluconic acid, tannins, and so on.
