For many years, I was fascinated by these seedpods, but had only seen them when they had turned dark brown and were included in flower arrangements. I was thrilled to bits when I knew they were growing at the Calgary Zoo and I could see them at all different stages. This photo was taken the day before yesterday, 6 October 2014, when I got to the Zoo for the second time since the Flood of the Century in June 2013. The tiny indoor pond where this was growing had just the one plant in it, unlike before the flood, when there were several.

"The lotus was of great significance to many ancient cultures, and in particular to the Eastern religions. From ancestral times, the lotus regularly appears as a symbol of purity, peace, transcendence, enlightenment, rebirth, beauty, and fertility. In India, the lotus flower is considered to be of divine origin and is viewed as sacred by both Hindus and Buddhists. Buddha was said to sleep on a lotus six months of the year, and Shambala (Buddhist heaven) is sometimes represented as a field of flowering sacred lotuses." Taken from the first link below.

www.holisticaroma.co.uk/shp/TheSacredLotus.htm

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelumbo_nucifera

"The pods/seed heads contain the Lotus seeds within little circular chambers on the flat surface of the top of the pod. These circles appeared to cradle the seeds, which are round, within the pod until fully ripe. Both the chamber of each seed and the seed itself got larger and larger until the pod bent over to finally release the seeds into the water."

www.flowersociety.org/lotus-plant-study.htm