Thursday, August 12, 2010

water lily

water lily at SSCC Arboretum by Susan K. Miller gold fish in the deep
water lily shadows

. . . . . . . .

A bit obsessed with water lilies of late, having run into them both at the Chinese Garden in Portland and at the South Seattle CC arboretum (and future home of the Seattle Chinese Garden). Given all that Chinese influence, I had jumped to the conclusion that they were lotuses.

Googling to find the difference, I came across a lot of gobbledgook, but finally YouTube showed me I have been painting water lilies: lotuses bloom on a stem that protudes much farther above the water. And it's a good thing I haven't gone hunting a sketch too early as these "hardy" ones are day bloomers, while the tropical ones may also bloom at night.

That ends today's botanical lesson.

No comments: