Euryale ferox
species of plant
Euryale ferox, commonly known as prickly waterlily, makhānā, 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 gorgon nuts, are dried and eaten predominantly in Asia.
The plant is cultivated for its seeds in lowland ponds in India, China, and Japan. The Indian state of Bihar produces 90% of the world's fox nuts. The Chinese have cultivated the plant for centuries. In India, more than 96,000 hectares of Bihar were set aside for cultivation of Euryale in 1990–1991. In the northern and western parts of India, the seeds are often roasted or fried like popcorn.
Description
Euryale ferox grows in freshwater ponds. The leaves are large, round and peltate, often more than 1 m (3 ft) across, sometimes to 2.7 m (9 ft) diameter, with a distinctive puckered top. The stalk is at the centre on the underside.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Euryale ferox” as species of plant. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of plant. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q310795. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1990 and 1991.
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This entry incorporates text from “Euryale ferox” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.