Euryale ferox - Gorgon Plant Euryale ferox is one of the most bizarre tropical deep water aquatics for the water garden. The rounded mature leaves are flat, prickly and 1-1.5m in diameter. The upper surfaces are olive-green, and both puckered and spiny. Although similar in general aspect to the giant Royal Waterlily, Victoria amazonica, the leaves do not turn up at the edges and produce rims like that species. The leaves are relatively short-lived, but are being constantly replaced. The undersides of the leaves are dark purple, strongly ribbed, the robust cord-like leaf stalks being liberally covered with prickles. The much smaller broadly lance-shaped to heart-shaped submerged foliage is not prickly. Euryale ferox Small violet-blue flowers, with petals paling to white in the centre, and up to 5cm long, are held just above the water during the summer. These are quite short-lived too. The rounded dark purple fruits are 5-10cm in diameter and contain numerous rounded black seeds 6-10mm in diameter. Although technically a perennial, and growing from a short, thick, erect rhizome, Euryale ferox is usually best raised annually from seed. It only grows successfully in gardens where during the summer months the temperature is regularly in excess of 28ēC, or in the large heated glasshouse in temperate regions. However, in places where it occurs naturally and there are cold winters, like Primorye, Russian Federation, seeds over-winter successfully in mud and appear again as soon as the temperature rises sufficiently to prompt them in germination. Euryale is widely cultivated as a food crop throughout much of Asia, but especially in North Bihar, India, where it is known locally by the name Madhubani (also Makhana in some other Indian regions). According to a report from the State Government of Bihar Fisheries Department (1990-91) some 96,000 hectares of wetland were under cultivation in that region alone. The seeds are edible, and fried seeds or "puffs" are extremely nutritious, consisting of 77% edible starch. The food value of 100gm of Madhubani puff is equal to the same amount of fish. The seeds are also of great traditional medicinal value. The name Euryale is derived from Greek Mythology, Euryale being one of the three gorgon sisters - thus the common name of Gorgon Plant. It is also called Fox Nut, especially by those who grow it to harvest its seeds. In Chinese it is called Qian Shi, and often noted under this name in traditional Chinese medicinal literature and distributed as Qian Shi commercially. In Japan it is called Onibasu.(45-90cm). Note: The most suitable depths of water for cultivating Euryale ferox are given in parentheses. Botanical Brief Euryale ferox Salisb. Large, stemless, prickly, herb; laticiferous. Annual, or perennial (short-lived); rhizomatous (rhizome short, thick, erect). Submerged leaves not prickly; leaf blade sagittate or elliptic, 4–10 cm, base deeply cordate. Floating leaves prickly on petioles and along veins; leaf blade abaxially dark purple and adaxially green, to 1.3(–2.7) m in diam., sub-leathery, abaxially sparsely pubescent, adaxially glabrous, base emarginate or sinuate; veins abaxially strongly ribbed; primary veins prickly on both surfaces. Flower to 5 cm in diam. Peduncle stout, densely prickly. Sepals triangular-ovate, 1–1.5(–3) cm, abaxially densely prickly; prickles retrorse. Petals outer purple-violet fading to inner white, oblong-lanceolate, 1(–2.5) cm. Ovary 7–16-loculed, each locule with 6–8 or more ovules. Fruit dark purple, globose, 5–10 cm in diam., spongy, densely prickly. Seeds black, 8 to many, globose, 6–10 mm in diam.; testa thick, rigid. Fl. Summer. Family: Nymphaeaceae Salisb. assigned to Euryalaceae J.G.Agardh by some botanists. Click here. to link to a botanical drawing in the Flora of China. Note: Students: We strongly advise against extracting comparative information from the botanical description provided here. Distribution: Russian Federation: Primorye (the rivers Ussuri and Ilistaya); China: Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Monggol, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang; Japan: Honshu, Kyushu; Korea; Taiwan; Bangladesh; India: Assam, Bihar, Jammu, Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal; (Cultivated extensively in Madhya, Pradesh and Bihar) Myanmar.

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