I have a lotus flower in my garden and I never knew

I was closing my bedroom blinds today and saw a big white flower in my garden and thought

'Hey, I should take a photo of that'.

So I went outside with my trusty Samsung Note 8 to take some photos. Isn't it pretty looking this big white flower on a long thin stem? It was growing out a fish tank my parents had kept outside.

It was not until I went closer to take photos inside the flower til I saw this bizarre green cone looking thing in the middle. Initially I thought this was a lily flower thus I expected to find the inside to be like a lily, where the stigma and stamen were small, long and thin. I was greeted by this bright big green cone and was blown away.

Honestly, I would not have gone outside to take photos, let alone go have a closer look at the flower if it wasn't for another fellow Steemian, @nikv, who loves gardening and said if you look closely, there are all sorts of amazing things right under your nose.

After this discovery in my garden, it prompt to search on google too see what sort of flower it was. I learnt the big cone part is the seed pod with stigmas on top. Around the cone, the yellow part, are the stamens.

Then I realised my dad's proud new dried up flower art he brought into the house the other day were dried up lotus flowers. So I took some close up photos of it with and without flash. This is what I discovered.

Not only did I find each seed pod with different numbers of stigmas, but some with seeds still in them.

A lotus bloom only last up to 3 days. Now I can see why my father was proud of his dried lotus flower collection which he keeps in a vase.