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The water caltrop is any of three extant species of the genus ''Trapa'': ''Trapa natans'', ''T. bicornis'' and the endangered ''Trapa rossica''. It is also known as water chestnut, buffalo nut, bat nut, devil pod, ling nut, lin kok, ling kio nut or singhara. The species are floating annual aquatic plants, growing in slow-moving water up to 5 meters deep, native to warm temperate parts of Eurasia and Africa. They bear ornately shaped fruits, which in the case of ''T. bicornis'' resemble the head of a bull or the silhouette of a flying bat. Each fruit contains a single very large starchy seed. ''T. natans'' and ''T. bicornis'' have been cultivated in China and India for at least 3,000 years for the edible seeds. ==Etymology== The generic name ''Trapa'' is derived from the Latin word for "thistle," calcitrappa, as also is another common name for the water caltrop. The Chinese name is ''língjiǎo'' (菱角), ''líng'' meaning "caltrop" and ''jiǎo'' meaning "horn." This is often rendered as ''ling nut'' by English-speakers. In India the plant has different regional names, such as singhada (Hindi: सिंघाडा), pani-phal (Hindi: पानीफल), or (Urdu: سنگھارا) shingoda (Gujarati: શિંગોડા). The plant's name in Japanese is ''hishi'', a word meaning "diamond or lozenge shaped". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Water caltrop」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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