Birth flower for July 2
Lotus
Meaning: Purity of heart
The Song-dynasty writer Zhou Dunyi praised the lotus for rising from mud unstained, making it a symbol of purity, and in Buddhism it stands for enlightenment. Its leaves are covered in microscopic bumps that make water bead up and roll away with the dirt, known as the "lotus effect." Its seeds are astonishingly long-lived: seeds about 2,000 years old found in Chiba, Japan, sprouted into the Oga lotus.