Ou Jie

Nelumbo nucifera (the sacred lotus; Ou Jie refers specifically to the dried nodes of the rhizome) is a large aquatic perennial in the Nelumbonaceae family, growing in still or slow-moving fresh water from a creeping, deeply embedded rhizome buried in pond mud. The rhizome is elongated, segmented, internally porous with large longitudinal air canals, and bears at each enlarged node a tuft of fibrous roots and an erect aerial leaf. The peltate, orbicular leaves, 30 to 90 centimeters across, are held above the water on long stout petioles, with a glaucous water-repellent waxy surface. The famous solitary flowers, 10 to 25 centimeters across, are borne on emergent peduncles and range from white through pink to deep rose, with numerous tepals surrounding a flat-topped yellow receptacle within which the carpels are sunken. The receptacle enlarges in fruit into the characteristic shower-head structure containing many nut-like seeds. The rhizome nodes (Ou Jie) are the constricted, denser sections between the elongated rhizome segments, harvested in autumn and dried.