Netherlandia belongs to the Nymphaeaceae family and is a perennial herb planted in shallow ponds. Its stem grows in the mud and metamorphoses into a rhizome, which is the lotus root, also known as lotus root. The lotus roots grow horizontally in the mud and absorb nutrients from the fibrous roots on the base stem nodes. Because lotus root meat is thick, crisp, tender and slightly sweet, contains a lot of starch and is rich in nutrients, it has been a favorite food of people since ancient times.

The inner wall of the plant's ducts will be particularly thickened in certain parts, forming various textures, some are ring-shaped, some are trapezoidal, and some are mesh-shaped. The thickened part of the duct wall of lotus root is continuous in a spiral shape, which is especially called a spiral duct. When the lotus root is broken, the thickened spiral part of the inner wall of the conduit breaks away and becomes a spiral filament with a diameter of only 3 to 5 microns. These filaments are like stretched springs and will not be broken within the elastic limit. They can generally be stretched to about 10 centimeters.

Lotus root silk is not only found in lotus roots, but also in lotus stems and lotus pods, but it is more slender. If you pick a lotus stem and fold it into sections as much as possible, it will look like a long series of connected small green "lanterns". What connects these small green "lanterns" is this kind of filament. . This filament looks like one filament, but if you observe it under a microscope, you will find that it is actually composed of 3 to 8 finer filaments, just like a cotton yarn is composed of countless cotton fibers.