Lotus flower

Nelumbo
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Nelumbo

Nelumbo nucifera
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae

Division: Angiosperms

(unranked): Eudicots

Order: Proteales

Family: Nelumbonaceae

Genus: Nelumbo
Adans.
Species
†Nelumbo aureavallis
Nelumbo lutea
Nelumbo nucifera


Nelumbo is a genus of aquatic plants with large, showy, water lily-like flowers commonly known as lotus. The generic name is derived from the Sinhalese word Nelum. There are two living species in the genus, the better known of which, the Sacred Lotus (N. nucifera), is the national flower of Egypt, India and Vietnam. An extinct species, Nelumbo aureavallis has been described from leaves found in the Golden Valley Formation in North Dakota, USA.[1]

There is residual disagreement over which family the genus should be placed in. Traditional classification systems recognized Nelumbo as part of the Nymphaeaceae (water lily) family, but traditional taxonomists were likely misled by evolutionary convergences associated with an evolutionary shift from a terrestrial to an aquatic lifestyle. In the older classification systems it was recognized under the biological order Nymphaeales or Nelumbonales. Nelumbo is currently recognized as its own family, Nelumbonaceae, as one of several distinctive families in the eudicot order Proteales. Its closest living relatives are shrubs or trees (Proteaceae and Platanaceae).

These plants are unrelated to the bird's-foot trefoils and deer-vetches of the genus Lotus.
SpeciesClassification
Most academic botanists recognize Nelumbo in the family Nelumbonaceae, comprising only the single genus, Nelumbo, with probably two species of aquatic plants, found in North America and Asia (and peEarlier classification systems
The Cronquist system of 1981, recognizes the family but places it in the water lily order Nymphaeales. The Dahlgren system of 1985 and Thorne system (1992) both recognize the family and place it in its own order, Nelumbonales.

[edit] Thermoregulation
N. nucifera regulates its temperature in order to benefit insects that are needed for it to reproduce. When the plant flowers, it heats its blossoms to above 30 °C (86 °F) for as long as four days even when the air is as cool as 10 °C (50 °F). The heat releases an aroma that attracts certain insects, which fly into the flower to feed on nectar and pollen. According to Roger Seymour and Paul Schultze-Motel of Australia’s University of Adelaide, the heat also rewards insects with a stable environment that enhances their ability to eat, mate, and prepare for flight.[2]
rhaps some adjacent areas, but widely cultivated elsewhere).

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