''Euryale'' is a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s of the family

Nymphaeaceae Nymphaeaceae () is a family of flowering plants, commonly called water lilies. They live as rhizomatous aquatic herbs in temperate climate, temperate and tropical climates around the world. The family contains five genera with about 70 know ...

Description

Vegetative characteristics

''Euryale'' is an annual or perennial, rhizomatous, aquatic herb with erect, unbranched rhizomes.''Euryale'' Salisbury. Flora of China @ efloras.org. (n.d.). Retrieved January 27, 2024, from http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=112398 The adaxial leaf surface is green, and features prickles at the veins. The abaxial leaf surface is violet and displays prominent, prickly venation.Henkel, F., Rehnelt, F., Dittmann, L. (1907).
"Das Buch der Nymphaeaceen oder Seerosengewächse."
pp.45-46. Deutschland: Henkel. The thin, sharp prickles are 3–11 mm long, and 1–2 mm wide at the base.

Generative characteristics

The pedunculate, 5 cm wide flowers have prickly peduncles and sepals.''Euryale ferox'' in Flora of China @ efloras.org. (n.d.). Retrieved January 27, 2024, from http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200007078 The flowers have four persistent sepals.''Euryale'' Salisb. (n.d.). Flora of Pakistan @ efloras.org. Retrieved December 13, 2024, from http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=112398 The gynoecium consists of 7–16 carpels. The prickly fruit bears 8–20 black, arillate, spherical, ovate, obovate, or ellipsoidal 6-10 mm wide seeds with a hard, smooth, wrinkled,Hooker, J. D., Thomson, T. (1855).
Flora Indica: Being a Systematic Account of the Plants of British India, Together with Observations on the Structure and Affinities of Their Natural Orders and Genera.
pp. 244–245. Vereinigtes Königreich: Pamplin. gnarled, or irregularly ridged testa.

Taxonomy

Publication

It was published by

Richard Anthony Salisbury Richard Anthony Salisbury (born Richard Anthony Markham; 2 May 1761 – 23 March 1829) was a British botanist. While he carried out valuable work in horticultural and botanical sciences, several bitter disputes caused him to be ostracised by hi ...

in 1805. with ''Euryale ferox'' as the type species.

Species

It has one extant species: *''

Euryale ferox ''Euryale ferox'', commonly known as prickly waterlily, makhana, or Gorgon plant, is a species of water lily found in southern and eastern Asia, and the only extant member of the genus ''Euryale''. The edible seeds, called fox nuts or ''makhana' ...

'' Salisb. And several fossil species: *†'' Euryale akashiensis'' MikiTanai, T. (1961)
"Neogene floral change of Japan."
Jour. Fac. Sci., Hokkaido Univ., Ser. 4, 11, 119-398. *†'' Euryale bielorussica'' Wieliczk. *†'' Euryale carpatica'' Szafer *†'' Euryale europaea'' C. A. WeberWeber, C. A. (1907)
"22. C. A. Weber: ''Euryale europaea'' nov. sp. foss."
Berichte Der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft, 150–157. *†'' Euryale limburgensis'' C. & E. In. Reid.''Euryale limburgensis'' C. & E. In. Reid. amily NYMPHAEACEAE (n.d.). JSTOR. Retrieved January 29, 2024, from https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.specimen.k000659202 *†'' Euryale lissa'' ReidGoren-Inbar, N., Melamed, Y., Zohar, I., Akhilesh, K., & Pappu, S. (2014)
"Beneath still waters–multistage aquatic exploitation of ''Euryale ferox'' (Salisb.) during the Acheulian."
Internet Archaeol, 37(10.11141). *†'' Euryale nodulosa'' C. & E. M. ReidMartinetto, E. (1998)
"East Asian elements in the Plio-Pleistocene floras of Italy."
In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Floristic Character Diversity of East Asian Plants (pp. 71-87). Berlin, Germany: Springer‐Verlag. *†''

Euryale spinosa ''Euryale spinosa'' is a fossil species of ''Euryale'' from the Miocene of Ardnamurchan Ardnamurchan (, ) is a peninsula in the ward management area of Lochaber, Highland, Scotland, noted for being very unspoiled and undisturbed. Its rem ...

'' J.B. SimpsonPotonié R.(1970). Die fossilen Sporen. Ihre morphologische (phylogenetische) neben der morphographischen Ordnung. p. 115. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_i2jCHCNTCMYC/page/n113/mode/2up *†'' Euryale sukaczevii'' Dorof. *†'' Euryale tenuicostata'' Dorof. *†''

Euryale ucrainica ''Euryale ucrainica'' is a fossil species of ''Euryale'' from the upper Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Cha ...

'' A.G. Negru''Euryale ucrainica'' A.G. Negru (n.d.). The International Fossil Plant Names Index (IFPNI). Retrieved November 29, 2024, from https://www.ifpni.org/species.htm?id=CCEBA1A8-527A-4A9E-BDEF-8C0D7C071433 *†''

Euryale yunnanensis ''Euryale yunnanensis'' is a fossil species of ''Euryale'' from the Late Miocene of Yunnan, China.Huang, Y. J., Ji, X. P., Su, T., Deng, C. L., Ferguson, D. K., Yu, T. S., ... & Zhou, Z. K. (2017)Habitat, climate and potential plant food resourc ...

'' Y. Huang & Z. ZhouHuang, Y., Ji, X., Su, T., Wang, L., Deng, C., Li, W., ... & Zhou, Z. (2015)
"Fossil seeds of ''Euryale'' (Nymphaeaceae) indicate a lake or swamp environment in the late Miocene Zhaotong Basin of southwestern China."
Science Bulletin, 60(20), 1768-1777. The placement of some of the fossil species is however disputed, as it has been proposed to move several species to the genus †''Pseudoeuryale'' P.I. Dorof.Doweld A.B. 2022
New names of fossil Nymphaeaceae and allied forms.
Geophytology 52(1&2): 1–28.

Evolutionary relationships

Together with the genus ''Victoria'', ''Euryale'' may be placed within the genus ''

Nymphaea ''Nymphaea'' () is a genus of hardiness (plants), hardy and tender aquatic plants in the family Nymphaeaceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution. Many species are cultivated as ornamental plants, and many cultivars have been bred. Some ta ...

'', rendering it paraphyletic in its current circumscription.Song, W., Shi, W., Wang, H., Zhang, Z., Tao, R., Liu, J., ... & Shi, C. (2024)
Comparative analysis of 12 water lily plastid genomes reveals genomic divergence and evolutionary relationships in early flowering plants.
Marine Life Science & Technology, 6(3), 425-441.He, D., Gichira, A. W., Li, Z., Nzei, J. M., Guo, Y., Wang, Q., & Chen, J. (2018)
Intergeneric relationships within the early-diverging angiosperm family Nymphaeaceae based on chloroplast phylogenomics.
International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 19(12), 3780.Loehne, C., Borsch, T., & Wiersema, J. H. (2007)
Phylogenetic analysis of Nymphaeales using fast-evolving and noncoding chloroplast markers.
Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 154(2), 141-163.Roestel, J. A., Wiersema, J. H., Jansen, R. K., Borsch, T., & Gruenstaeudl, M. (2024)
On the importance of sequence alignment inspections in plastid phylogenomics–an example from revisiting the relationships of the water‐lilies.
Cladistics. The lineage of ''Euryale'' and ''Victoria'' diverged from the lineage of ''Nymphaea'' subg. ''Lotos'' and ''Nymphaea'' subg. ''Hydrocallis'' in the Miocene and subsequently the lineages of ''Euryale'' and ''Victoria'' diverged from each other also in the Miocene.

Cytology

The chromosome count of ''Euryale ferox'' is 2n = 58.Wu, P., Zhang, L., Zhang, K., Yin, Y., Liu, A., Zhu, Y., ... & Li, L. (2022)
"The adaptive evolution of Euryale ferox to the aquatic environment through paleo‐hexaploidization."
The Plant Journal, 110(3), 627-645.

Ecology

Habitat

It occurs in ponds, lakes, rice fields, and marshes.

Pollination

Flies and solitary bees visit the flowers of ''Euryale ferox''.Kadono, Y., & Schneider, E. L. (1987). The life history of ''Euryale ferox'' Salisb. in southwestern Japan with special reference to reproductive ecology. Plant Species Biology, 2(1‐2), 109-115.

Distribution

''Euryale'' is found in the area that stretches from Northern India to the Russian Far East and extends into temperate East Asia. Recently, it has also been recorded in Serbia, Europe. It was likely dispersed to Serbia through migrating birds.Živković, M., Pejčić, L., Paskaš, N., Bajić, A., Šipoš, Š., Perić, R., & Novakovic, B. (02 2023)
"First recent record of Prickly Waterlily (Euryale ferox) Salisb. (Nymphaeaceae) in freshwaters of Europe."
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Conservation

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

conservation status of ''Euryale ferox'' is least concern (LC).Zhuang, X. 2011. ''Euryale ferox''. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2011: e.T168756A6535154. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2011-2.RLTS.T168756A6535154.en. Accessed on 27 January 2024.

Fossil record

''Euryale'' seeds and prickles are well preserved in the fossil recordVillaret-von Rochow, M. (1958). Stacheln von ''Euryale'' sp. im norddeutschen Pleistozän : ein neues Interglazialfossil. Veröffentlichungen Des Geobotanischen Institutes Rübel in Zürich, 34. https://doi.org/10.5169/seals-308097 and pollen fossils are known as well.Simpson JB. XVI.�
The Tertiary Pollen-Flora of Mull and Ardnamurchan.
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 1961;64(16):421-468. doi:10.1017/S0080456800100407 Today, ''Euryale'' only occurs in the region spanning from Northern India to the Russian Far East, and extends to temperate East Asia but the fossil record shows it was once also present in central Europe.Kirchheimer, F. (1956)
"Die Laubgewächse der Braunkohlenzeit."
pp. 619-622. It is known from the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

of Poland, Russia, China, Germany, and the United Kingdom, from the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58 Germany,Mädler, K. (1939).
Die pliozäne Flora von Frankfurt am Main.
p. 93. Deutschland: Senckenbergische Naturforschende Ges..Thiel, C., Klotz, S., & Uhl, D. (2012)
Palaeoclimate estimates for selected leaf floras from the late Pliocene (Reuverian) of Central Europe based on different palaeobotanical techniques.
Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences, 21(2), 263-287. and Italy,Manchester, S. R., CHEN, Z. D., LU, A. M., & Uemura, K. (2009)
Eastern Asian endemic seed plant genera and their paleogeographic history throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
Journal of Systematics and Evolution, 47(1), 1-42. and lastly, from the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

of Russia, Germany, Poland, Japan, China, Belgium,VANHOORNE, R. (2005)
POLLEN ASSEMBLAGES, PLANT COMMUNITIES AND BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF THE LOWER PLEISTOCENE CAMPINE CLAY IN BELGIUM.
Geologica Belgica. and Belarus.Величкевич, Ф. Ю. (1979)
ИСТОРИЯ ПЛЕЙСТОЦЕНОВОЙ ФЛОРЫ СРЕДНЕЙ ПОЛОСЫ ВОСТОЧНО-ЕВРОПЕЙСКОЙ РАВНИНЫ.
In Советская палеокарпология (итоги и перспективы) (pp. 76–121). НАУКА.

Use

The seeds and petioles are used as food.Khapudang, R., Loukrakpam, L.C., Jadaun, S., Sharma, U., Siddiqui, S. (2024)
Wild Edible and Wetland Plants of Manipur: Their Sustainable Food Usage.
In: Thakur, M. (eds) Sustainable Food Systems (Volume I). World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15111312 Aquatic plants Nymphaeales genera