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Nelumbo is a genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 of aquatic plants with large, showy, water lily
Water lily

The phrase water lily is used to describe aquatic plants of the following families:* Nymphaeaceae* Nelumbonaceae, also called lotus.Other uses:...
-like flowers commonly known as lotus
Lotus

Lotus may refer to:* Nelumbo, plant genus of true Lotus flowers* Lotus position, cross-legged sitting posture for meditation* Lotus Cars, British sports car manufacturer, and former Formula One Team Lotus...
 or sacred lotus. The generic name is derived from the Sinhalese word Nelum. There are two species in the genus, the better known of which, N. nucifera, or "Sacred Lotus," is the well-known national flower of India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
 and Vietnam
Vietnam

Vietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by People's Republic of China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east....
.

There is residual disagreement over which family the genus should be placed in.






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Nelumbo is a genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 of aquatic plants with large, showy, water lily
Water lily

The phrase water lily is used to describe aquatic plants of the following families:* Nymphaeaceae* Nelumbonaceae, also called lotus.Other uses:...
-like flowers commonly known as lotus
Lotus

Lotus may refer to:* Nelumbo, plant genus of true Lotus flowers* Lotus position, cross-legged sitting posture for meditation* Lotus Cars, British sports car manufacturer, and former Formula One Team Lotus...
 or sacred lotus. The generic name is derived from the Sinhalese word Nelum. There are two species in the genus, the better known of which, N. nucifera, or "Sacred Lotus," is the well-known national flower of India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
 and Vietnam
Vietnam

Vietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by People's Republic of China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east....
.

There is residual disagreement over which family the genus should be placed in. Traditional classification systems recognized Nelumbo as part of the Nymphaeaceae
Nymphaeaceae

Nymphaeaceae is a name for a family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called water lilies and live in freshwater areas in temperate and Tropics around the world....
 (water lily) family, but traditional taxonomists were likely misled by evolutionary convergences associated with an evolutionary shift from a terrestrial to an aquatic life style. In the older classification systems it was recognized under the biological order
Order (biology)

In Biological classification used in biology, the order is a taxonomic rank between class and family . The superorder is a rank between class and order....
 Nymphaeales
Nymphaeales

Nymphaeales is a botanical name at the rank of order . When recognized, it includes Nymphaeaceae and sometimes other aquatic plants. This order is not part of the APG II system 2003 plant classification , which instead has a broadly circumscribed family Nymphaeaceae unplaced in any order....
 or Nelumbonales. Nelumbo
Nelumbo

Nelumbo is a genus of aquatic plants with large, showy, water lily-like flowers commonly known as lotus or sacred lotus. The generic name is derived from the Sinhalese language word Nelum....
 is currently recognized as its own family, Nelumbonaceae, as one of several distinctive families in the eudicot order Proteales
Proteales

Proteales is the botanical name of an order of flowering plants. Such an order has been recognized by almost all taxonomists....
. Its closest living relatives are shrubs or trees (Proteaceae
Proteaceae

Proteaceae is a family of flowering plants. Mainly restricted to the Southern Hemisphere, it is a fairly large family, with around 80 genus but fewer than 2000 species....
 and Platanaceae
Platanaceae

Platanaceae is a family of flowering plants. It has been recognized by almost all taxonomists, and is sometimes called the "plane-tree family"....
).

These plants are unrelated to the bird's-foot trefoils and deer-vetches of the genus Lotus
Lotus (genus)

Lotus is a genus that includes bird's-foot trefoils and deervetches and contains many dozens of species distributed world-wide. Depending on the taxonomic authority, roughly between 70 and 150 are accepted....
.

Species

  • Nelumbo nucifera
    Nelumbo nucifera

    Nelumbo nucifera, known by a number of names including Indian lotus, sacred lotus, bean of India, or simply lotus. Botanically, Nelumbo nucifera may also be referred to by its Synonym , Nelumbium speciosum or Nymphaea nelumbo. This plant is an aquatic perennial....
    , the blue or Indian lotus, also known as the bean of India and the sacred water lily of Hinduism
    Hinduism

    'Hinduism' is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as , a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal dharma", by its practitioners....
     and Buddhism
    Buddhism

    Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices considered by most to be a religionand is based on the teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as "The Buddha" , who was born in what is today Nepal....
    . It is the national flower of India
    India

    India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
     and Vietnam. Its roots and seeds are also used widely in Asian cooking.
  • Nelumbo lutea
    Nelumbo lutea

    Nelumbo lutea, the American Lotus, also known as Yellow Lotus or Water-chinquapin, is a flowering plant of the order Proteales....
    , the American lotus


Classification

Most academic botanists recognize Nelumbo in the family Nelumbonaceae, comprising only the single genus, Nelumbo, with probably two species of aquatic plant
Aquatic plant

Aquatic plants — also called hydrophytic plants or hydrophytes — are plants that have adapted to living in or on aquatic environments....
s, found in North America and Asia (and perhaps some adjacent areas, but widely cultivated elsewhere).

The leaves
Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
 of Nelumbo can be distinguished from those of genera in the Nymphaeaceae as they are peltate
Leaf shape

In botany, the following terms are used to describe the shape of plant leaf:* Acicular : Slender and pointed, needle-like* Acuminate : Tapering to a long point...
, that is they have fully circular leaves. Nymphaea, on the other hand, has a single characteristic notch from the edge in to the center of the lily pad. The central seed
Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
 pod of Nelumbo is also a distinguishing feature.

APG

The APG II system
APG II system

A modern list of systems of plant taxonomy, the APG II system of plant classification was published in 2003 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, APG, in...
 of 2003, recognizes Nelumbonaceae as a distinct family and places it in the order Proteales
Proteales

Proteales is the botanical name of an order of flowering plants. Such an order has been recognized by almost all taxonomists....
, in the eudicot clade
Clade

A clade is a term used in modern alpha taxonomy, the scientific classification of living and fossil organisms, to describe a monophyletic group, defined as a group consisting of a single common ancestor and all its descendants.The term "monophyletic group" is used in this article in the conventional sense of "an a...
.

Earlier classification systems

The Cronquist system
Cronquist system

A list of systems of plant taxonomy, the Cronquist system is a scheme for the classification of flowering plants . This system was developed by Arthur Cronquist in his texts An Integrated System of Classification of Flowering Plants and The Evolution and Classification of Flowering Plants ....
 of 1981, recognizes the family but places it in the water lily order Nymphaeales
Nymphaeales

Nymphaeales is a botanical name at the rank of order . When recognized, it includes Nymphaeaceae and sometimes other aquatic plants. This order is not part of the APG II system 2003 plant classification , which instead has a broadly circumscribed family Nymphaeaceae unplaced in any order....
. The Dahlgren system
Dahlgren system

One of the modern list of systems of plant taxonomy, the Dahlgren system was published by monocotyledons specialist Rolf Martin Theodor Dahlgren....
 of 1985 and Thorne system (1992)
Thorne system (1992)

A modern list of systems of plant taxonomy, the Thorne system of plant classification was drawn up by the botanist Robert Folger Thorne . He replaced it in 2000 with a new system....
 both recognize the family and place it in its own order, Nelumbonales.

Gallery



External links

  • in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). : descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval. Version: 3rd May 2006. http://delta-intkey.com.