12/14/06

Contact: Jamie Creamer (334) 844-2783 (creamjs@auburn.edu), or
Mike Clardy (334) 844-9999 (clardch@auburn.edu)

LOTUS TO TAKE ROOT AS A CASH CROP IN THE BLACK BELT

AUBURN - Researchers at the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station at Auburn University envision the lotus - an ancient aquatic plant that some countries have used for centuries as food, medicine and for its ornamental properties - as a possible crop for Alabama’s Black Belt.

In collaboration with scientists from China, Japan, Mississippi and Georgia, the AU research team will evaluate 130 varieties of lotus from around the world to determine their ornamental characteristics, such as flower color, size and longevity and the appeal of the edible types to the American palate.

The researchers will investigate the potential demand for lotus products in Alabama and the Southeast, analyze lotus production costs and economic potential and expand their current extensive collection of lotus cultivars, all in an effort to make Alabama, and specifically the state’s Black Belt, the nation’s center for lotus production.

The AAES and the Alabama Cooperative Extension system has begun a state-funded Black Belt
aquaculture research initiative to identify aquaculture species that can be developed for production to boost the economy in west Alabama, one of the state’s poorest regions.

“We believe lotus is an ideal crop for the poorly drained soils of the Black Belt where it could be produced inexpensively, either along with catfish or alone as a new aquaculture crop,” said AU horticulture professor and lotus research team leader Ken Tilt.

“With an appeal to both the ornamental and the food markets, lotus could become the Vidalia onion of the Black Belt,” said Tilt. “It is not so much a new discovery as it is introducing and promoting in the U.S. what a few billion people around the world enjoy on a regular basis. We want to show people here what they have been missing.”

Native to southern Asia and sacred to Hindus and Buddhists, lotus have large leaves between four and 18 inches or more in diameter, fragrant flowers that bloom from mid-June through the early fall and distinctive seedpods which, when dried, are often used in flower arrangements.

Lotus can vary greatly in size, from dainty one-gallon-container varieties that stand a mere six inches above the water to ones that tower six feet above the surface in the shallow areas of ponds where they are planted. For centuries, some of the world’s cultures have used the plant for medicinal purposes to treat a myriad of conditions that include, high blood pressure, insomnia and skin and stomach ailments. Most parts of lotus, from the seeds to the rhizomes, or underground stems, are edible.

The AU lotus project took root six years ago, when Tilt and fellow AU horticulture professor Jeff Sibley traveled to Hubei, China, and visited Wuhan Botanical Gardens and its director, AU alumnus Hongwen Huang. That 175-acre garden, home to nearly 4,000 species of plants, is China’s chief research center for lotus production.

The visit piqued the Auburn faculty members’ interest in the plant, and they began collecting cultivars from China, Japan, New Zealand and Australia to bring to Alabama to evaluate for their growth potential here. The testing is being done on the Auburn campus and at the AAES’s North Alabama Horticultural Research Center in Cullman, but that will be expanded to the Black Belt Research and Extension Center in Marion Junction before year’s end, Tilt said.

If lotus shows significant economic potential, the research team will seek to have the U.S. Department of Agriculture establish the Black Belt as the nation’s lotus germplasm repository. That means it would be the center for the collection, evaluation and distribution of lotus cultivars from around the world.

“We already have one of the largest collections of lotus cultivars in the country, so it makes sense to have the lotus gene bank in Alabama,” Tilt said.

Working with Tilt and Sibley on the lotus project are AU horticulture professor Floyd Woods, agricultural economics professor Deacue Fields and graduate students Daike Tian, Warner Orozco and Wayne Chesnut; scientists from the University of Georgia and Mississippi State University; and researchers in China and Japan.

“We’re very optimistic that lotus will soon be gracing Alabamians’ gardens and dinner tables and that Black Belt farmers will be reaping the rewards,” Tilt said.

(Contributed by Jamie Creamer.)

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Auburn University is a comprehensive research institution with more than 23,000 students and 6,500 faculty and staff. Ranked among the top 50 public universities nationally, Auburn offers more than 230 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degree programs.

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