“There came a Day at Summer’s full/ Entirely for me.” - Emily Dickenson

It’s August and I am taking in all the beauty of this season. The sun is always shining and flowers are in full bloom.

And one of the most unforgettable flower I saw in bloom are water lotus. It was just a few weeks ago when I took my mother to the local Buddhist temple and got to witness this for the first time.

So on my next visit to the temple I had my camera ready to capture some of the blooms. But sadly it looked like all the flowers were gone. But what remained was something just as interesting. There were pods after pods of water lotus seeds.

Here is a photo of the youngest pod. During the life cycle of the water lotus, the flower blooms, the petals die out and then the fruit pod grows. Eventually the dried pods drops off and float on the surface of the water flat side down. This way the seeds can sink to the bottom of the pond and a new cycle begins.

As for water lotus, they are such incredible plants. The flowers, seeds, young leaves, and “roots” are all edible. The taste and crunch of water lotus roots actually reminds me of water chestnut.

In Asia, the petals are used sometimes for garnish, while the large leaves are used as food wrapper. And the dried seed pod is commonly used in flower arrangements.

And not to mention, the religious importance of water lotus in Hinduism and Buddhism too. So the perfect place to find water lotus ponds would be at the temple.

I did touched the pods to see how it felt. There are actually tiny thorns growing around the stem and leaves too.

I would have loved to just pick some and take it with me. Being they we were on temple grounds, we are not allowed to remove anything (without permission). Or even with permission, it was frowned upon by other temple members to ask for stuff. Anyway I guess I just wasn’t in the mood to be frowned upon.