To make the best of the butterfly season and water lilies’ peak season, Kaohsiung is promoting a city tour that connects Lotus Pond (蓮池潭) in Zuoying District (左營) and the butterfly garden at Jinshi Lake (金獅湖) in Sanmin District (三民).
The Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau has planted Victoria water lilies at the southern end of the artificial lake, adjacent to a waterskiing area, bureau Director Hsu Chuan-sheng (許傳盛) said.
With the help of horticulture experts, the lilies have grown beautifully, with their leaves extending up to 1.5m in diameter, much to the delight of visitors, Hsu said.
Photo: Ko Yu-hao, Taipei Times
The Victoria amazonica water lily belongs to the family of Nymphaeaceae and has large disc-shaped leaves that lie flat on the water surface, he said.
Its leaves can grow to between 1m and 3m in diameter and can support between 50kg and 70kg — equal to the weight of three children, Hsu said.
However, the director was quick to add that boarding the lilies is prohibited for safety reasons, stressing that the plants are for viewing only.
The leaves of a Victoria water lily can cover an area between 6m2 and 10m2 if they are fully unfolded.
Its flowers are known for their rich fragrance and for changing color overnight from white to pink, he said.
The butterfly garden at Jinshi Lake is the largest butterfly house in the nation, and visitors can observe hundreds of butterflies of 30 different families during the summer, including the swallowtail butterfly, Pieridae, Nymphalidae and the Lycaenidae, he said.
The butterfly garden is a popular site for ecological summer camps for children, he said.
The pond and the lake are in downtown Kaohsiung and can easily be reached via public transport, Hsu said.
Tourists can join a city tour, while local residents need not travel to Tainan’s Beihe District (白河) if they want to see giant water lilies, he added.
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