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Eleocharis dulcis

 
Eleocharis Dulcis

 
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Eleocharis dulcis
 
 
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The Chinese water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis; synonyms E. equisetina, E. indica, E. plantaginea, E. plantaginoides, E. tuberosa, E. tumida), more often called simply the water chestnut, is a grass-like sedge
Cyperaceae

The family Cyperaceae, or the sedges, is a taxon of monocotyledon flowering plants that superficially resemble Poaceae or Juncaceae. The family is large, with some 4,000 species described in about 70 genera....
 grown for its edible corm
Corm

A corm is a short, vertical, swollen underground plant Plant stem that serves as a storage organ used by some plants to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat ....
s.






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The Chinese water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis; synonyms E. equisetina, E. indica, E. plantaginea, E. plantaginoides, E. tuberosa, E. tumida), more often called simply the water chestnut, is a grass-like sedge
Cyperaceae

The family Cyperaceae, or the sedges, is a taxon of monocotyledon flowering plants that superficially resemble Poaceae or Juncaceae. The family is large, with some 4,000 species described in about 70 genera....
 grown for its edible corm
Corm

A corm is a short, vertical, swollen underground plant Plant stem that serves as a storage organ used by some plants to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat ....
s. It has tube-shaped, leafless green stems that grow to about 1.5 metres. The water caltrop
Water caltrop

The water caltrop or water chestnut is either of two species of the genus Trapa: Trapa natans and Trapa bicornis. Both species are floating annual plant aquatic plants, growing in slow-moving water up to 5 meters deep, native to warm temperate parts of Eurasia and Africa....
, which is also referred to by the same name, is unrelated and often confused with the water chestnut.

The Chinese water chestnut (traditional Chinese: ??; simplified Chinese: ??; hanyu pinyin: bíqí, ??; pinyin:matí) is native to China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
 and is widely cultivated in flooded paddy field
Paddy field

A paddy field is a flooded parcel of arable land used for growing rice and other Aquatic plant. Rice can also be grown in dry-fields, but from the twentieth century paddy field agriculture became the dominant form of growing rice....
s in southern China and parts of the Philippines
Philippines

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
.

In Vietnam
Vietnam

Vietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by People's Republic of China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east....
, it is called c? mã th?y (in the North) and c? nang (in the South) and is the main ingredient of bánh c? nang h?p, chè mã th?y.

The small, rounded corms have a crispy white flesh and can be eaten raw, slightly boiled, grilled, pickled, or tinned
Canning

File:Berthold Weiss Canned Foods.jpgFile:Canned food factory .jpgCanning is a method of food preservation in which the food is processed and sealed in an airtight container....
. They are a popular ingredient in Chinese dishes. In China, they are most often eaten raw, sometimes sweetened. They can also be ground into a flour
Flour

Flour is a powder made of cereal grains. It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many civilizations, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history....
 form used for making water chestnut cake
Water chestnut cake

Water chestnut cake is a sweet Cantonese cuisine dim sum dish made of shredded Eleocharis dulcis. During yum cha the cake is usually cut into square-shaped slices and Pan frying before serving....
, which is common as part of dim sum
Dim sum

Dim sum is the name for a Chinese cuisine which involves a wide range of light dishes served alongside Chinese tea. It is usually served in the mornings until noon time at Chinese restaurants and at specialty dim sum eateries where typical dishes are available throughout the day....
 cuisine. They are unusual among vegetables for remaining crisp even after being cooked or canned. They do this because their cell walls are cross-linked and strengthened by certain phenolic compounds
Phenols

In organic chemistry, phenols, sometimes called phenolics, are a class of chemical compounds consisting of a hydroxyl Functional group attached to an aromatic hydrocarbon group....
, a property shared by other vegetables that remain crisp in this manner, including the tiger nut and lotus root.

The corms are rich in carbohydrate
Carbohydrate

Carbohydrates or saccharides are the most abundant of the four major classes of biomolecules. They fill numerous roles in living things, such as the storage and transport of energy and structural components ....
s (about 90 percent by dry weight), especially starch
Starch

File:Amylose2.svgFile:Amylopektin Sessel.svgStarch or amylum is a polysaccharide carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds....
 (about 60 percent by dry weight), and are also a good source of dietary fiber
Dietary fiber

Dietary fiber, sometimes called "roughage", is the indigestible portion of plant foods that pushes food through the digestive system, absorbing water and easing defecation....
, riboflavin
Riboflavin

Riboflavin , also known as vitamin B2, is an easily absorbed micronutrient with a key role in maintaining health in humans and animals....
, vitamin B6
Vitamin B6

Vitamin B6 is a water-soluble vitamin and is part of the vitamin B complex group. Pyridoxal phosphate is the active form and is a cofactor in many reactions of amino acid metabolism, including transamination, deamination, and decarboxylation....
, potassium
Potassium

Potassium is a chemical element. It has the symbol K , atomic number 19, and atomic mass 39.0983. Potassium was first isolated from potash, hence the name....
, copper
Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity....
, and manganese
Manganese

Manganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a Oxidation state in nature , and in many minerals....
.

If eaten uncooked, the surface of the plants can transmit Fasciolopsiasis
Fasciolopsiasis

Fasciolopsiasis results from infection by the trematode Fasciolopsis buski Odhner, 1902, the largest intestinal Trematoda of humans ....
.

The water chestnut is actually not a nut
Nut (fruit)

Nut is a general term for the large, dry, oily seed or fruit of some plant. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts....
 at all, but an aquatic
Aquatic

The term aquatic refers to "things" that are in or of the water but not to water itself, and can refer to the following:* Plants and/or animals living in oceans, estuary, lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands, and ponds ....
 vegetable that grows in marshes.

See also

  • Aquatic plants


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