Blooming Lotus Stages

Buds

• Lotus flowering continues for up to three months during the growing season. First the plant forms leaves and stems. As soon as the plant forms standing leaves that are above the water, it is in the mature seedling stage. This is when the flower buds begin to form off the leaf buds. The rising leaves drag the flower buds up into the light where they continue development. The buds are tightly coiled and pointed, consisting of pink or yellow petals that wrap around the central corolla.

Flowers

• Lotus flowers may be as large as dinner plates. They are comprised of two to six sepals, and 10 to 30 petals arranged in a spiral. The flowers open full and fresh for two days and close overnight. This habit is known as diurnal, and the plant begins to fade after the second day. Most lotus flowers only last five days, during which time the bloom begins to fade and doesn't close all the way at night. The base of the flower expands, turns fleshy and encloses the ovary.

Fruit

• The petals fall after the flower has surrounded the ovary. The ovary develops into a hard, green, cone-shaped fruit with numerous holes on the widest plane. Once fertilization takes place, it can take 30 days until seed maturity. Each ovule inside the ovary will become a seed. During this time, the fruit shrivels and turns dark brown and woody. It is now the seed pod, which will bear a hard-shelled seed in each hole. Seeds have a long period of viability. Some seeds have been found that are between 200 and 450 years old and were still fertile.

Lotus Chakra

• The blooming lotus stages are a series of practices that help focus an individual and remove time and external influences so they can unite with the divine. The practices can be used with Tantric meditation and yoga or as a spiritual centering. The first blooming stage is Mulhadara chakra, which is the base of the body. Svadhisthana is the genital area, Manipur the lower abdomen, Suddha the heart and Visuddha the base of the throat. The consciousness is represented by Ajna, or the third eye, and the crown lotus is the final practice, which is centered on the top of the head.