The blue lotus is not a lotus: what Nymphaea caerulea really is

Let us start with the name, because it is wrong. The Egyptian blue lotus, Nymphaea caerulea, is not a lotus. It is a water lily. The true lotus, the one of India and of Buddhist iconography, is Nelumbo nucifera, and it belongs to another botanical family: the Nelumbonaceae, whereas the blue lotus is one of the Nymphaeaceae. The two are not cousins, they only look alike from a distance.

How to tell them apart in the field

A single criterion is enough, and it is visible from three metres away: look at the leaves.

On the water lily, they float flat on the water, with a slit running from the edge to the centre, where the petiole is attached. On the lotus, they are held above the surface on an upright stalk, round and without a slit, and water beads on them without wetting them, so much so that this property was named after it: the lotus effect.

Second clue, the fruit. The lotus produces the conical receptacle pierced with cells that you see in dried flower arrangements. The water lily does not: its fruit ripens under water and breaks down.

Why it is everywhere in Egyptian art

Few plants are depicted as often. It appears in tomb paintings, on column capitals, in the hands of banqueters, around the necks of mummies. It all comes from its daily rhythm.

The flower opens in late morning and closes again in early afternoon, three or four days in a row. For the Egyptians, this opening and closing set to the course of the sun made the flower the image of the sun's daily rebirth, and by extension of the rebirth of the deceased. It is associated with Nefertum, a deity the texts present as the lotus born from the primordial waters.

It is also strongly scented, which is far from incidental in a culture where scent and the divine were linked.

What it looks like

Pale blue to mauve petals, narrow and pointed, arranged in a star around a bright yellow heart dense with stamens. These are the stamens you find intact in our whole dried flowers, which is not so common: drying in bulk often makes them fall off.

The foliage is clear green on top, often blotched with purple underneath, with a slightly wavy edge.

Growing it in our climate

It is a tropical water lily, and that is the whole difference from the hardy water lilies of garden ponds. It grows from a tuber and needs water at 20 to 25 °C to grow and flower: below 18 °C, it stalls.

There are three ways to grow it. In a pond, treat it as an annual, planted in June when the water is warm and lost in autumn. In a raised tub or a tank in the sun, the water warms up faster and the result is much better. In a greenhouse, it can be kept from one year to the next, by lifting the tuber in autumn and storing it cool and damp, protected from frost.

Plant the tuber in a basket filled with heavy soil, not potting compost, which would float, and submerge it under 20 to 40 cm of water. Full sun, still water: it likes neither shade nor current. Our live bulb is sold for this purpose.

Is blue lotus legal in France?

It is a question that comes up often, so we may as well answer it soberly. Nymphaea caerulea does not appear on the French list of substances classified as narcotics. Selling it as collector's plant material and an ornamental plant is therefore lawful, and it is on that basis, and on that basis only, that we offer it: our dried flowers are not a food product, and we give no dosage, no preparation method and no expected effect.

Two useful clarifications. The status differs from country to country: if you are ordering from abroad, check the local regulations, which may be more restrictive. And regulations can change: this paragraph describes the state of French law on the date this article was published.

What we offer

Both appear in our dried herbs collection and our collection of ritual plants, alongside other species that folklore and religions have charged with meaning: mandrake, calea, white sage.

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