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Languorous Water Lilies

© Audrey Stallsmith

Water lilies and lotuses generally inhabit shallow water, their rhizomes anchoring them to the muck while their round leaves bob on or are held above the surface. The flowers of hardy water lilies usually float comfortably too, while the blooms of tropical types and lotuses hold their heads high. This prideful attitude may be due to the fact that tropicals tend to be larger, more fragrant, and available in a wider range of colors. While most hardy varieties and lotuses open during the day, some of the tropical water lilies strut their stuff at night.

Wilder describes one of the most spectacular, Victoria Regia-which originated in South America, as having leaves "often seven feet or more in diameter " and "great blossoms, measuring from eight to fifteen inches across. They partly close with the coming of light but open again the following night, the petals changing the while from gleaming white until by the third day they have become a deep purplish red. The fragrance of these great flowers is rich and pervading, strongly fruity, like Pineapple. . ." Those ones might almost be big enough for someone to sleep on!

Because it is an example of unspoiled beauty springing from mud, the water lily stands, in the Language of Flowers, for "purity of heart." The lotus, perhaps due to its speaking scent represents "eloquence." Although the plants are not frequently employed as a medicine these days, poultices made from the leaves and rhizomes of nymphaea odorata (white pond lily) and nuphar advena (yellow pond lily or spatterdock) once soothed boils, tumors, ulcers, and other inflammations.

Perhaps another reason the water lilies are associated with sleep is because the fragrance of the night-bloomers tends to be the most intense. Wilder reports that "Brought into the house the delicate but exquisite sweetness, not unlike that of a Magnolia but with a faintly bitter tang, finds its way through the darkness to all the rooms. . ."

Let's not forget that faintly bitter tang! Although we all need an occasional vacation from reality, it is possible to become so addicted to dreams that we never seek their fulfillment. Like the sailors in the Odyssey, we can be all too easily deflected from our quests by the deadly sin of sloth. The Lotos-eaters of Tennyson's poem ended up pleading for "long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease." Perhaps Lotis got her revenge, after all!