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Touchable Plants

By Susan Morgan, HGTV.com
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Lotus
« Chenille Plant | Passion Flower »
All parts of the lotus (Nelumbo sp.) are interesting in one way or another. The flower is beautiful and large, about six to eight inches across. After the blooms are spent, the seedheads dry, forming pock-marked holes in which the seeds rest. When shaken, the seedheads sound like maracas. Cut a cross-section of the tuber, and a honeycomb structure is revealed.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the lotus is the foliage. Each leaf is a round, wavy disk supported by a stem that attaches at the middle. The leaf is waxy to the touch and has hydrophobic properties--that is, when water droplets hit the leaf surface, they roll around like beads of mercury. Kids love to play with this plant.



Chenille Plant

Lotus

Passion Flower

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