Thailand successfully develops new lotus, named Queen Sirikit

BANGKOK, June 29 (TNA) - A Thai researcher has successfully developed a new hybrid lotus with new colors and Her Majesty the Queen has nameed it "Queen Sirikit". The newly-developed lotus is purple, the newest color of worldwide lotus varieties. The tips of its petals are purple and the bases are white. Its sepals are green-white. Importantly it can produce shoots by itself. The Thai researcher, Pairat Songpanich, an academic at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives' Department of Agriculture, had spent five years, from 2003-2007, to develop the new Thai hybrid lotus from the Perry’s Fire Opal Lotus of the Nymphaea genus and the Nang Kwak Blue Lotus of the Brachyceras genus. There are over 20 plants of the newly-developed lotus and they are being reproduced as a royal gift for Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, who will celebrate her 80th birthday on August 12, 2012. The newly-developed lotus will later be distributed to other interested parties for further reproducing. Pairat has, meanwhile, won many local and overseas awards for developing new lotus strains, including the world’s first Blue Hardy Lotus, which other worldwide researchers have tried in vain to develop for a century. (TNA)