Ultimate 1000 Petal Lotus Blooms with Help, Video: Fact Check

Story:

Ultimate 1000 Petal Lotus Blooms with Help

Fact Check:

A video doing rounds online purports to show an unusual flower – Ultimate 1000 Petal Lotus Blooming with some help from a woman’s hand. The beautiful and dense lotus flower is real and it needs help in blooming sometimes.

Ultimate 1000 Petal Lotus (Zhizun Qianban)

Lotus is the common name of Nelumbo Adans (Nelumbonaceae). It has only two species, Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn native to Asia and N. lutea Willd native to America and the Caribbean Sea region. The beautiful lotus you see in the video is real – it shows cultivar Nelumbo nucifera ‘Zhizun Qianban’ discovered in Southern China in 2009. Dr. Daike Tian discovered the flower at the South China Botanical Garden (SCBG), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and named it ‘Zhizun Qianban’ (in Chinese characters), which means ‘ultimate thousand-petals’.

The large-sized lotus with a double pink flower can have up to 1650 petals. Petals and petaloid stamens 1000 to 1650 when grown in a pond or large ditch. However, they reduce to 550 to 1000 when planted in containers. The lotus flower can grow 156 to 207 cm tall with leaf blade 42 to 76 cm long and 31 to 66 cm wide. Below is another video showing the natural wonder blooming in a small terrace garden.

Good for Decoration

‘Zhizun Qianban’ is an improved cultivar with a beautiful shape, and strong stalk. It is an excellent ornament for decoration in either ponds or containers. It also has the potential as a cut flower because a single flower may last for 1 week. On the other hand, like mentioned above, there are different types and cultivars of Lotus. Opening lotus petals with hands is not a new concept. They can also be folded into certain designs even after they are plucked from the plant. Ultimate 1000 Petal Lotus flower opens slowly, taking 3 to 4 days from the start of opening to full blooming. Some of the outer petals will begin to drop before the flower opens fully, so cultivators sometimes open the flower with one hand to enjoy it longer.

Hoax or Fact:

Fact.