The lotus is one of the most attractive aquatic perennial plant species. It is also considered as one of the oldest plants on this earth. Lotus belongs to Nelumbo which is the sole extant genus of the family Nelumbonaceae, placed in the Proteales, an order of the basal audicots (APG III, 2009). The APG IV system of 2016, recognizes Nelumbonaceae as a distinct family and places it in the order Proteales in the audicot clade, as do the earlier APG III and APGN systems (APG IV, 2016). The genus Nelumbo (Nelumbo Adans.) consists of two extremely similar species, Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. distributed in Asia and Oceania, and Nelumbo lutea Willd in North and South America (Qichao