Calle del Loto

The lotus is an aquatic flower that opens its petals over ponds and still waters. In Egypt it adorned temples and tombs; in India and Southeast Asia it became an emblem of purity, because it rises clean from the mud. It reached Madrid as a street name, not as a plant: there were never any lotus ponds here, only the wish to fill the street plan with an imaginary garden. Loto belongs to the large botanical group that orders the streets of Valdeacederas and neighboring Almenara. A few steps away run Genciana, Crisantemo, Azucenas and Agave. Many of these names were assigned in the mid-twentieth century, when the absorption of Chamartín de la Rosa forced streets to be renamed to undo duplicates. No record survives of why the lotus was chosen for this short street. The name follows the logic of the group: one more flower in the bouquet scattered across the slopes of Tetuán, where orchards once drew water from streams.