I find, very often, that people get a lotus mixed up with a lily, so I am making this post to illustrate the difference…

This…is a lily:

And this…is a lotus:

Here are the typical lotus buds and leaves:

The lotus also can be white; these are rarer to find:

Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning is supposed to be sitting on a white lotus. (even though, in the picture by Raja Ravi Varma in that wiki link, she is depicted sitting on a rock!)

Lilies (not the water lilies, but the “land” flowers…remember the phrase, white as a lily?) are generally associated with being white, and that’s why, I think, pink lilies are confused with the lotus. But the shape differentiates them from lotuses:

But lilies can be this beautiful mauve, too….

The more pointed petals, the more angular shape of the flower, distinguishes lilies from lotuses. The leaves are different, too; lily leaves have the characteristic “slice” out of the circumference of the leaf. Lotus leaves are more fleshy-looking too.

OK, Mr SS, I guess THAT answers your question….