Yellow Pond Lily / Spatterdock / Cow Lily (Nuphar lutea)

Family: Nymphaeaceae | Edibility: Edible (3/5)

A rooted aquatic perennial with large heart-shaped floating and emergent leaves, spherical yellow cup-shaped blossoms smelling of alcohol or sweet wine, and stout underwater rhizomes producing flagon-shaped seed pods filled with nutritious seeds.

Edible Parts & Harvest Seasons

Edible Parts: Nuts/Seeds, Roots/Tubers

Harvest Seasons: Late Summer, Fall

Flavor & Culinary Uses

Popped seeds have a nutty, toasted corn-and-wild-rice flavor; boiled rhizome is starchy with a mild potato texture — Ripe seed pods harvested by canoe; seeds separated from slimy arils and dried; Dried seeds roasted or popped in a hot dry skillet like miniature wild popcorn (water lily popcorn); Popped seeds ground into an exceptionally rich wild grain meal for porridge and flatbreads; Stout underwater rhizomes scrubbed, sliced thin, and boiled in multiple changes of water to remove bitterness

Habitat & North American Range

Quiet ponds, slow-moving rivers, lake shallows, freshwater marshes, and beaver impoundments. (Zone 3, Zone 4, Zone 5, Zone 6, Zone 7, Zone 8, Zone 9)