.Vivianne

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All my life I heard of the American lotus blooming out in the waterways of Louisiana. I finally had the opportunity to go out at dawn in a flatboat to search for the blooms. We launched in the dark and arrived in the water field at daybreak. When the sun came up I could not believe the beautiful sight--thousands of flowers opening in the morning light. And, in a flatboat I was level with them. The American Indians used all parts of the flower and root for food and medicine. The huge leaves hold rainwater for birds to drink and bathe. Folklore says that the Louisiana Cajuns gave it the name, Graine a' Voler, meaning seeds that fly, because when the seed pod dries it can throw the seeds some twenty feet into the air. Unfortunately, or fortunately for the flowers, they do not hold up once cut and the two that I did cut and put in a water bottle were already wilted by the time we reached shore. Wildlife and Fisheries have called the plant a nuisance and are killing it. The southern Louisiana people harvest the pods by the sacks and eat the seeds either raw or boiled. It has the bland taste of a grape to me but those who have acquired a taste usually cannot wait until the hot days of July when the lotus are blooming to launch a flatboat and harvest a sack or two. We encountered many birds on our trip; here is a red winged blackbird enjoying his morning bath in a leaf. It was truly a wonderful adventure and I cannot wait until July for a trip into the finest of nature's paths.