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The sacred lotus is a perennial aquatic plant with rhizomes (often mistakenly called 'roots') that grow in the mud at the bottom of shallow ponds, lakes, lagoons, marshes and flooded fields. Its large, peltate (with the leaf-stalk attaching to the centre, rather than the edge) leaves rise above the water surface on 1 to 2 m long petioles. The strikingly water-repellent leaf surface has inspired the term 'lotus effect'. This term describes the leaves' self-cleaning capacity which is a result of dirt particles being picked up by water droplets due to a complex nanostructure of the leaf surface, which minimises adhesion.