11 The One Called Lily
Lauren Leuschen
Inspired by “The Consolation of Water Lilies” in Braiding Sweetgrass
Summary: From the perspective of a water lily, this story explains the different parts of water lilies and how they survive. The water lily tells the story of its late-night thoughts on what it learned from a young girl and her grandmother who visited the lily pond.
Keywords:
- Petiole: stems that root and pedals of water lilies together.
- Aerenchyma: cells found in stems of floating water plants.
- Rhizome: a stem that connects to roots and stores the lily’s oxygen to help keep them alive.
- Pollinate: transferring pollen from one place to another.
When I opened my eyes, it was hard to put into words what was around me. It was wonderful! I couldn’t see much; everything was bright and blue.
I heard people around, they were talking, laughing, and some were even crying. One of the younger ones was looking at me and smiling. She called me Lily and said I was beautiful!
The young girl ran away for a few moments then returned with an older woman. She called her, grandmother! Grandmother told the younger girl, Susie, that I was a water lily. She seemed to know a lot about me and how I got to where I am. They talked about me for what seemed like hours. Susie and her grandmother left once the sun started to set, but grandmother promised they would come back tomorrow!
When nightfall came, I could not stop thinking about all the thoughts that Susie and her grandmother shared about me.
There was no way I was getting any sleep tonight. The first thought that I had was about how there is a long stem connected to me called a petiole that stretches all the way from the bottom of the pond. The petiole is connected to both my roots, which are in the mud of the pond, and to my pedals. Which amazed me, I thought I was just floating here!
I then remembered grandmother talking about how the inside of my stem is packed with spongy white cells that are filled with air. I think she called these air cells aerenchyma. Yes, that sounds right, aerenchyma! She said that these cells are only in the stems of floating water plants, which is what I am!
As the sun began to rise, I knew that I have been up all-night thinking about everything Susie and her grandmother talked about.
The one thought that I still cannot wrap my pedals around is how I survive. Grandmother said that I need both light and air, which I am getting here at the surface of the pond. And at the bottom of the pond, I have a living rhizome attached that keeps me alive from the oxygen I collect on the surface. The oxygen that I collect travels through a chain that the aerenchyma or the air cells form to deliver all the way down to the rhizome.
The last piece of information that I learned is something that I am not completely looking forward to because I love it up here on the surface. Susie’s grandmother mentioned that one of my goals is to attract pollinators. After being pollinated, I then bend down back under the water while my seeds mature. Once my seeds have matured, I straighten back up to above the surface and my seeds pop out onto the water.
It all makes sense now; all my family members are in different stages. Some of them are below the surface maturing and others are up here being pollinated with me.
Grandmother had to tell Susie everything she knew about me; I hope they are back today and share more thoughts about everything around me before I bend below the surface for the next couple months.
Oh look, here they are now!
