Nymphaea lotus Coptic flag. Claire Waight Keller included the flower to represent Malawi in Meghan Markle's wedding veil, which included the distinctive flora of each Commonwealth country. In some parts of Africa the rhizomes and tubers are eaten for the starch they contain either boiled, roasted or ground to a flour after drying. The young fruits are sometimes consumed as a salad. The seeds are turned into a meal. The tubers or the seeds are used as a famine food in India. The ancient Egyptians cultivated the white lotus in ponds and marshes. This flower often appears in ancient Egyptian decorations. They
Lotus pedunculatus at the end of the flower bud. The peak flowering period in the United Kingdom is June and July. "Lotus pedunculatus" occurs in a wide range of neutral, damp, open habitats, including certain fen-meadow plant associations such as "Juncus subnodulosus"-"Cirsium palustre" fen-meadow habitat. "Lotus pedunculatus" is also a host plant for ovipositioning of the wood white butterfly, "Leptidea sinapis." Lotus pedunculatus Lotus pedunculatus (formerly Lotus uliginosus), the big trefoil, greater bird's-foot-trefoil or marsh bird's-foot trefoil, is a member of the pea family (Fabaceae). It is a herbaceous perennial growing throughout Europe in damp, open locations. As one common name suggests,