Indian lotus

Individual pink flowers by the hot spring. Symbols of reaching out for the light of knowledge! A botanical rarity on a world scale. Meet the Indian lotus - a plant species very rare in Slovenia.

A botanical path leading to Indian lotus

The Botanical Path in Šmarješke Toplice's spa park leads to a small lake fed by a hot spring. In it thrives a rare plant – Indian lotus. In summer the surface of the lake is covered thick with big, waxy leaves above which several hundred showy light-pink flowers rise gracefully.

The symbolic meaning of this special plant

On a summer morning, at first light, lotus flowers slowly rise from the water and start to gently uncurl their petals. In the heat of the day the blossom is completely open, gleaming in all its beauty. At sunset, the flower curls its petals back up again and retreats down into the water, from which it re-emerges the following morning. So the lotus – in addition to beauty, unfailing vitality and virtue – also symbolises man's spiritual growth, rising from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge.

A natural rarity

This lotus genus, which thrived across the globe in the Tertiary, can nowadays be seen in its natural habitat only in some parts of Asia and Australia. It was widely believed that Indian lotus could not make it through our winter out in the open-air. But the Šmarješke Toplice lotuses, which provide shelter for many turtles and fish, owe their uniqueness and eye-catching quality to the habitat on top of a hot spring.