The Lotus Effect

Hey dear Hive community, first of all I would like to welcome you all to my contribution and hope you had a weekend that was full of positive experiences! In this post, I would like to address an interesting topic when it comes to plants and hope you can learn something new.

When I was outside today on a rainy day, I was able to take some pictures in which the lotus effect is well expressed and I would like to go into more detail about this effect. This phenomenon was first researched in 1970 on the lotus plant, which was also an influencing actor for the naming and it can also be considered a kind of self-cleansing effect of plants and this is especially important if the plant cleans by itself, because dust or other dirt particles on the surface of the leaves can influence photosynthesis and this effect also protects it from fungi or other diseases. The effect was probably already known to humanity before it was named thousands of years ago and lotus is often associated with purity from a symbolic point of view and this of course also fits well with this effect and in recent decades this effect has been examined and it has been found that the leaves have a water-repellent double structure and the water rolls off and takes the dirt particles with it. The leaves that have this effect have small pimples on the surface on which the water drops off and the best-known plants on which this effect can be seen are indian cress, lady's mantle, common columbine, lotus, reeds and many others. The principle of self-cleaning surfaces has been patented and can be found in many daily areas of life and from an economic point of view, some industrial branches also have taken advantage of this phenomenon to develop products.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about nature! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens!