Blooming Soon - is a photograph of a lotus blossom not yet fully opened. The photo was taken in Nanjing, China at the Xuan Wu Lake! To the Chinese, the lotus is the most important of all cultivated flowers, grown for both, its beauty and its usefulness. It has large blossoms, tinted pink, creamy white, or yellow, growing on stalks six or seven feet high, appearing from the center of very broad leaves. Every part of this plant has its special use. The fruits and leaves are used as food, the dried yellow stamens are used as an astringent, and the seeds can be used as medicine or eaten as a dessert. The kernels are boiled in soup, roasted, or eaten raw, while the stems are sliced and boiled. The leaves can be taken medicinally or used dried to wrap food. The lotus is also known as a symbol of purity and perfection, growing out of the mud into a state of blossoming beauty and fruitfulness. The flowers are open for a mere three days, then petal by petal they disintegrate, leaving the green seed head exposed. It is not only a symbol important to Buddhism, that the lotus is recognized, but also as an emblem of one of the Eight Immortals of Taoism – the other main Chinese religion.