LOTUSES AND THE MOON

[krisna at cs.wisc.edu]

Let us ignore taxonomy and biology for a moment and think
astronomy.

Moon rise/set is not synchronous with Sun set/rise.  This means
that during the course of a lunar month, the moon is visible for
various periods during the 24-hour solar day.

Therefore a "moon-lotus" (if there were such a thing) is not the
same as a "night-lotus".  There are good botanical reasons for
the existence of the latter, and none for the former.


Now, if someone can find a reference to a "moon-lotus" blooming
during the daytime, _that_ would be an interesting data point
since now we have something that can be truly lunar-synchronous
and not solar-synchronous (with occasional lunar concordance).
Until then, we should rationally treat references to "blooming
with the moon" as a poetic cliche for blooming at dusk/night.

After all, the word "comet" comes from the Greek for "hair".  Do
we then start claiming that there really were tresses of hair
floating through the heavens that led to the word coinage.

--Krishna

PS:  If this point has been made before, I apologise.  I am new
to this mailing list.  I am simply responding to the recent
flurry of discussions of the systematics of lotus and
water-lilies.