When I was young, I loved dinosaurs, and never stopped loving everything about them. In arboretums, I also enjoyed the occasional collections that claimed to feature “prehistoric” plants, most often horsetails and ferns. I always thought lotuses looked prehistoric, myself.
To me, the lotus’ vascular (circulation) system seemed somewhat advanced for a plant. Its stems are honeycombed with tubing to carry nutrients throughout the plant and to each seedhead. The lotus can also control its own “body” temperature.
I wondered if water plants like lotuses pushed the evolution of circulatory systems ahead, by developing such elaborate piping. Water is where life probably began and developed in fits and starts. I ponder whether the lotus’ piping was one of evolution’s early efforts to advance circulatory systems to new levels.
I was likewise impressed by the advanced vascular development in the water lily, after pulling several tons of lilies from two ponds. The lilies’ root system/rhizomes may have been dozens of feet long; we had to break it into pieces to lift it out.
As I was handling the lilies, its circulatory system caught my eye, too.
To me, the physical appearance and distinctive, large structure of the lily and lotus plants’ tubes seems more like an animal’s circulatory system, than a plant’s system.
The lily is one of the oldest flowering plants. It may hold many evolutionary secrets. It’s unique tissues recently yielded dramatic clues to how flowering plants developed 150 million years ago. I wonder if its vascular system harbors other discoveries.
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Now its your turn--
What have you noted in your area or travels?
Any lotuses in the pond nearest you? Please post your observations and general location in your comments. I’ll check back by dinnertime.