Euryale is a genus of flowering plants of the family Nymphaeaceae.
Euryale is an annual or perennial, rhizomatous, aquatic herb with erect, unbranched rhizomes. The adaxial leaf surface is green, and features prickles at the veins. The abaxial leaf surface is violet and displays prominent, prickly venation. The thin, sharp prickles are 3âÂÂ11 mm long, and 1âÂÂ2 mm wide at the base.
The pedunculate, 5 cm wide flowers have prickly peduncles and sepals. The flowers have four persistent sepals. The gynoecium consists of 7âÂÂ16 carpels. The prickly fruit bears 8âÂÂ20 black, arillate, spherical, ovate, obovate, or ellipsoidal 6-10 mm wide seeds with a hard, smooth, wrinkled, gnarled, or irregularly ridged testa.
It was published by Richard Anthony Salisbury in 1805. with Euryale ferox as the type species.
It has one extant species:
And several fossil species:
The placement of some of the fossil species is however disputed, as it has been proposed to move several species to the genus â Pseudoeuryale P.I. Dorof.
Together with the genus Victoria, Euryale may be placed within the genus Nymphaea, rendering it paraphyletic in its current circumscription. 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.
The chromosome count of Euryale ferox is 2n = 58.
It occurs in ponds, lakes, rice fields, and marshes.
Flies and solitary bees visit the flowers of Euryale ferox.
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.
The IUCN conservation status of Euryale ferox is least concern (LC).
Euryale seeds and prickles are well preserved in the fossil record and pollen fossils are known as well. 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. It is known from the Miocene of Poland, Russia, China, Germany, and the United Kingdom, from the Pliocene of the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, and Italy, and lastly, from the Pleistocene of Russia, Germany, Poland, Japan, China, Belgium, and Belarus.
The seeds and petioles are used as food.