Watercress

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Watercress

Watercresses (Nasturtium
Nasturtium (genus)

Nasturtium is a genus of five species in the Family Brassicaceae , best known as containing the edible watercresses Nasturtium microphyllum and Nasturtium officinale ....
officinale, N. microphyllum; formerly Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, R. microphylla) are fast-growing, aquatic or semi-aquatic, perennial plant

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. When used by gardeners or horticulturalists, this term applies specifically to perennial herbaceous plants....
s native from Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
to central Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, and one of the oldest known leaf vegetable

Leaf vegetable

Leaf vegetables, also called potherbs, greens, or leafy greens, are plant leaf eaten as a vegetable, sometimes accompanied by tender Petiole s and shoots....
s consumed by human beings. It is an invasive species in the Great Lakes

Great Lakes

The St. Lawrence River Great Lakes are a chain of fresh water lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada ? United States border. Consisting of Lakes Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth....
region where it was first sighted in 1847. These plant

Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
s are members of the Family Brassicaceae

Brassicaceae

Brassicaceae or Cruciferae, also known as the crucifers, the mustard family or cabbage family is a Family of flowering plants ....
or cabbage

Cabbage

The cabbage is a leafy garden plant of the Family Brassicaceae , used as a Leaf vegetable. It is a herbaceous, biennial plant, dicotyledonous flowering plant distinguished by a short stem upon which is crowded a mass of leaves, usually green but in some varieties red or purplish, forming a characteristic compact, globular cluster ....
family, botanically related to garden cress

Garden cress

Garden cress is a fast-growing, edible plant botanically related to watercress and Mustard plant and sharing their peppery, tangy flavor and aroma....
and mustard

Mustard plant

Mustards are several plant species in the genera Brassica and Sinapis whose small mustard seeds are used as a spice and, by grinding and mixing them with water, vinegar or other liquids, are turned into the condiment known as Mustard ....
— all noteworthy for a peppery, tangy flavour.

The hollow stems of watercress are floating and the leaves are pinnately compound.

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Encyclopedia

Perennial plant

Europe

Asia

Leaf vegetable

Great Lakes

Plant

Brassicaceae

Brassicaceae or Cruciferae, also known as the crucifers, the mustard family or cabbage family is a Family of flowering plants ....
or cabbage

Cabbage

Garden cress

Garden cress is a fast-growing, edible plant botanically related to watercress and Mustard plant and sharing their peppery, tangy flavor and aroma....
and mustard

Mustard plant

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s in clusters.

Nasturtium nasturtium-aquaticum (nomenclaturally invalid) and Sisymbrium nasturtium-aquaticum L. are synonyms of N. officinale. Nasturtium officinale var microphyllum (Boenn. ex Reich.) Thellung is a synonym of N. microphyllum (ITIS, 2004). These species are also listed in some sources as belonging to the genus, Rorippa
Rorippa

Rorippa is a flowering plant genus in the cabbage family , containing approximately 80 species native to Europe through central Asia, Africa, and North America....
, although molecular evidence shows that the aquatic species with hollow stems are more closely related to Cardamine than Rorippa. Watercresses are not related to the flowers in the genus Tropaeolum (Family Tropaeolaceae), popularly known as "nasturtiums".

Watercress cultivation

Cultivation of watercress is practical on both a large scale and a garden scale. Being semi-aquatic, watercress is well-suited to hydroponic

Hydroponics

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, without soil. Terrestrial plants may be grown with their roots in the mineral nutrient solution only or in an inert medium, such as perlite, gravel, or mineral wool....
cultivation, thriving best in water that is slightly alkaline. It is frequently produced around the headwaters of chalk stream

Chalk stream

Chalk streams have characteristics which set them apart from watercourses associated with other Rock types.Aside from those with an interest in the geology and ecology disciplines, the term chalk stream is most widely used among a small group of fly fishermen , as the ecology of the chalk streams creates an especially entertaining...
s. In many local markets, the demand for hydroponically grown watercress exceeds supply. This is due in part to the fact that cress leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
are unsuitable for distribution in dried form and can only be stored for a short period.

However (in the UK at least), the packaging used by supermarkets using sealed plastic bags under some internal pressure (a plastic envelope containing moisture and pressurised (inflated) to prevent crushing of contents) has allowed the distribution of watercress (and sometimes a mixture of it with other salad leaves). This has allowed national availability with a once purchased storage life of 1 - 2 days in chilled/refrigerated storage.

If unharvested, watercress can grow to a height of 50-120 cm. Also sold as sprouts

Sprouting

Sprouting is the practice of soaking, draining and then rinsing seeds at regular intervals until they germinate, or sprout. This can be a semi-automated or fully automated process when done on a large scale for commercial use....
, the edible shoots are harvested days after germination.

Like many plants in this family, the foliage of watercress becomes bitter when the plants begin producing flowers.you can use green leaf if you would like in a sandwich as a substitute

New Market, Alabama

New Market, Alabama

New Market is a census-designated place in Madison County, Alabama, Alabama, United States, and is included in the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area....
, is known as the "Watercress Capital of the World".

Watercress is one of the main ingredients in V8 Vegetable Juice

V8 (beverage)

V8 Vegetable Juice is a trademark name for beverage products sold worldwide and made from either eight vegetables or a mixture of both fruits and vegetables....
. Watercress is often used in sandwiches, such as those made for afternoon tea

Tea (meal)

Depending on a country's customs, tea can refer to any of several different meals or mealtimes....
.

Watercress is grown in a number of counties of the UK, most notably, Hertfordshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset, although the first commercial cultivation was along the River Ebbsfleet in Kent

Kent

Kent is a Counties of England in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the River Thames estuary....
grown by William Bradbery

William Bradbery

William Bradbery born 11th of July 1776, died 11th of August 1860, anentrepreneur, who was the first person in England to cultivate and sellwatercress on a commercial basis....
(horticulturist) in 1808. Alresford, near Winchester, is often considered the watercress capital of Britain (to the extent that a steam railway line is named after the famous local crop). In recent years, watercress has become more widely available in the UK, at least in the South-East, being stocked pre-packed in some supermarkets, as well as fresh by the bunch at farmers' markets and greengrocers. Value-added produce such as the traditional watercress soup, as well as watercress pesto are increasingly easy to source.

Health benefits and cancer defense

Watercress contains significant amounts of iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
, calcium

Calcium

Calcium is the chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. It has an atomic mass of 40.078 amu. Calcium is a soft grey alkaline earth metal, and is the fifth most abundant element by mass in the earth's Crust ....
and folic acid

Folic acid

Folic acid and Folate are forms of the water-soluble B vitamins. Vitamin B9 is essential to numerous bodily functions ranging from nucleotide synthesis to the remethylation of homocysteine....
, in addition to vitamins A

Vitamin A

Vitamin A, a bi-polar molecule formed with bi-polar covalent bonds between carbon and hydrogen, is linked to a family of similarly shaped molecules, the retinoids, which complete the remainder of the vitamin sequence....
and C

Vitamin C

Vitamin C or ascorbic acid is an essential nutrient for humans, a large number of simian species, a small number of other mammalian species , a few species of birds, and some fish....
. In some regions watercress is regarded as a weed

WEED

WEED is a radio station broadcasting a Gospel format. Licensed to Rocky Mount, North Carolina, USA, it serves the area. The station is currently owned by Northstar Broadcasting Corporation....
, in other regions as an aquatic

Aquatic plant

Aquatic plants — also called hydrophytic plants or hydrophytes — are plants that have adapted to living in or on aquatic environments....
vegetable

Vegetable

The term "vegetable" generally means the Eating parts of plants. The definition of the word is traditional rather than scientific, however, and therefore the usage of the word is somewhat arbitrary and subjective, as it is determined by individual cultural customs of food selection and food preparation....
or herb

Herb

A herb is a plant that is valued for qualities such as medicinal properties, flavor, scent, or the like....
. Watercress crops grown in the presence of animal

Animal

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the Kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life....
waste

WASTE

WASTE is a peer-to-peer and friend-to-friend protocol and software application developed by Justin Frankel at Nullsoft in 2003 that features instant messaging, chat rooms and file browsing/sharing capabilities....
can be a haven for parasites such as the liver fluke

Liver fluke

Liver flukes are a polyphyletic group of trematodes .Adults of liver flukes are localized in the liver of various mammals, including humans. These flatworms can occur in bile ducts, gallbladder, and liver parenchyma....
Fasciola hepatica
Fasciola hepatica

Fasciola hepatica, also known as the common liver fluke or sheep liver fluke, is a parasitism flatworm of the class Trematoda, phylum Platyhelminthes that infects liver of various mammals, including humans....
.

Many benefits from eating watercress are claimed, such as that it acts as a mild stimulant

Stimulant

Stimulant drugs are drugs that temporarily increase alertness and awareness. They usually have increased side-effects with increased effectiveness, and the more powerful variants are therefore often prescription medicines or illegal drugs....
, a source of phytochemical

Phytochemical

Phytochemicals are plant-derived chemical compounds under scientific research for their potential health-promoting properties. Phytochemicals are non-essential nutrients, but still they have been scientifically confirmed as being important to human health....
s and antioxidant

Antioxidant

An antioxidant is a molecule capable of slowing or preventing the Redox of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons from a substance to an oxidizing agent....
s, a diuretic

Diuretic

A diuretic is any drug that elevates the rate of urination and thus provides a means of forced diuresis. There are several categories of diuretics....
, an expectorant, and a digestive

Digestive

Digestive may refer to:*Digestion, biological process of metabolism*Digestive biscuit, a British semi-sweet biscuit*Digestif, small beverage at the end of a meal...
aid. It also appears to have cancer

Cancer

Cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cell display uncontrolled growth , invasion , and sometimes metastasis . These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited, do not invade or metastasize....
-suppressing properties. It is widely believed to help defend against lung cancer

Lung cancer

Lung cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell growth in tissue of the lung. This growth may lead to metastasis, which is the invasion of adjacent tissue and infiltration beyond the lungs....
.

In addition, watercress is a known inhibitor of the Cytochrome P450 CYP2E1

CYP2E1

Cytochrome P450 2E1 , a member of the cytochrome P450 mixed-function oxidase system, is involved in the metabolism of xenobiotics in the body. While it is involved only in the oxidative metabolism of a small range of substrates , there are many important drug interactions mediated by CYP2E1....
, which may result in altered drug metabolism for individuals on certain medications (ex., chlorzoxazone).

External links

(ITIS)
- The Alresford Watercress Festival
- The Watercress Line
Watercress Line

The Watercress Line is the marketing name of the Mid-Hants Railway, a heritage railway in Hampshire, England, running from New Alresford to Alton, Hampshire where it connects to the national rail network....
/Mid-Hants Railway