PHOTOGRAPHER'S JOURNAL: There are 8 genera in the family of plants we commonly refer to as water lilies. The yellow lily, which has lost all but one of its petals, is of the genus Nuphar. The petals of these lilies are stubby and stay so tightly curled that they look like perpetual buds. In fact, the petals hinge back only slightly. Once they are open the flowers are as popular as a good Irish pub; it isn't long before many bugs are clamoring at once for a seat inside at the bar. The pink lily is of a different but closely related genus, Nymphaea, goddesses of the woodland spring. The species of Nymphaea are much more numerous. They blossom in the air and sleep below water. The bugs visit here too, but are much more polite and refined.
Nuphar water lilies are sometimes referred to popularly by the term lotus, but the sacred Indian lotus for which the term is more commonly used is of an entirely different genus and family from Nuphar and the other genera of the family we call water lilies.
4 comments:
I raise my glass of Guinness and toast your thorough answer to my question. Now how about a pic of a lotus?
I greet your toast with my glass of Hooker October Fest. The lotus is coming, the lotus is coming.
I was going to talk about how much I like the disturbingly Matisse-like contours against the black black backdrop, but I seem to have wandered into a pub. And I concur with Jane, WHERE are the lotuses (lotii?)
Sign me,
Curious in Paris
The loti are coming, the loti are coming, and I'd have toasted with O'Hara's, but I can't buy it on my side of CT.
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