In deep autumn the pond shows its withered lotuses: dry stalks propping up over the water, leaves rolled and drooping; when rain falls, drip after drip—more worth listening to than the height of bloom.

Listening to Rain on Withered Leaves

In deep autumn the pond shows its withered lotuses: dry stalks propping up over the water, leaves rolled and drooping, the green turned brown. When rain falls, drip after drip pattering on the old leaves—more worth listening to than the high summer bloom.

Many love the lotus in full flower; some prefer it in decline. Stand by the pond and watch the dry stalks stand one by one in the water, and autumn takes on a concrete shape.

— Song Dynasty · Yang Wanli, “Seeing Off Lin Zifang at Dawn from Jingci Temple” —

The lotus leaves touching the sky are endlessly green;

the lotus flowers mirrored in the sun are red in a way all their own.

One Lotus, a Body of Names

In the Chinese mind, the lotus is the gentleman flower that rises unstained from mud; Zhou Dunyi’s essay “On the Love of the Lotus” set the tone: washed in clear ripples without being seductive, hollow within and straight without.

Every part of it has its own name: the underground rhizome is the lotus root (ou), the leaf the lotus leaf, the receptacle the lotus pod, the fruit the lotus seed, the embryo the lotus heart. One plant, five or six names from top to bottom—each able to enter poetry, the table, and medicine.

From Pond to Table

Lotus root and seeds are chiefly food: the root may be eaten raw or simmered in soup, seven-holed and nine-holed kinds each with their own ways; the seeds are simmered with the bitter heart removed, or cooked with lily. The leaf wraps rice and steamed dishes, lending a trace of clear bitterness.

Leaf, heart, and receptacle all enter medicine—clearing heat and summer heat, astringing the intestines—usages long kept in materia medica; the root node, ou jie, also enters medicine for cooling the blood. A single lotus: almost no part comes up empty.

• How to know it: Perennial aquatic herb; stout creeping rhizome; leaves peltate, round and large, standing above the water; flowers large, pink or white; nuts hidden in the pod.
• Season: Flowering heaviest June–August; roots and pods gathered August–October; in winter the withered leaves and dry pods are another scene.
• Caution: Fresh root and seeds are fine to eat, but medicinal use and dosage must follow a physician—do not self-treat with lotus in place of medicine.

The Measure of the Pond

The lotus loves light and warmth and fears deep water and weak sun; pond cultivation minds the depth of water and the thickness of bottom mud—roughly half a meter of shallow water suits it best.

The lotus pond raises other life too: fish and shrimp thread between the stems, dragonflies settle on the pods, and a single leaf is itself a habitat. It divides the water into two layers, each busy in its own way.

◆ ◆ ◆

Keywords: lotus · withered lotus · lotus root · pond