Water chestnut

Water chestnut
	Water chestnut ( Eleocharis dulcis ), illustration
Systematics
	Monocots
	Commelinids
Order :	Sweet grass (Poales)
Family :	Sourgrass family (Cyperaceae)
Genre :	Marsh rushes ( Eleocharis )
Type :	Water chestnut
Scientific name
	Eleocharis dulcis
	( Burm.f. ) Trin. ex Hensch.

Conservation of the water chestnut, fruiting

Water chestnut, tuber

The water chestnut or Chinese water chestnut ( Eleocharis dulcis ) belongs to the sourgrass family (Cyperaceae). The water chestnut got its name because of the similarity of its edible tubers with the chestnut , with which it is not closely related. The rhizome tubers are edible in this species. In contrast, the water nut ( Trapa natans ), also called water chestnut, bears edible fruits .

description

The water chestnut is an aquatic plant. It forms four to six upright, hollow rungs that are up to 1.5 m high. They are leaf-like, cylindrical and 3 to 7 mm in diameter. The foliage leaves are reduced to three or four basal sheath leaves of brown to black color. The small flowers are terminally on the shoots in a cylindrical, 1.5 to 4 cm long and 6 to 7 mm wide spike with overlapping scales. The fruits are nuts . The roots consist of wire-like rhizomes , at the end of which about 2.5 to 4 cm large, underground tubers are formed. The inside of these tubers is whitish, has a water content of about 80% and is encased in an approx. 0.75 mm thick, flaky shell. There is a conical shaped bud on this tuber.

The tuber is eaten by some waterfowl, such as the crack-leg goose ( Anseranas semipalmata ).

The chromosome number is 2n = 76, about 196 and about 216.

Occurrence

The water chestnut is found in the tropics and subtropics of Africa, Asia and Australia.

use

The water chestnut is ideal for cooking and does not lose its crunchy consistency even after a long cooking time. Their white meat has a sweetish taste. The water chestnut is peeled like an apple. Many cooked Asian dishes contain water chestnuts, but water chestnuts can also be enjoyed raw, but only with appropriate caution, because the giant intestinal cones ( Fasciolopsis buski ) of humans and pigs is transmitted by its cercaria on the surfaces of the water chestnut .

The starch, which is extracted from dried water chestnut tubers, is used in China to make a sweet drink, and the straw from the plant is woven into mats, baskets and hats.

cultivation

The aquatic plant is mainly cultivated in stagnant waters in Thailand , (South) China , Taiwan , Japan , the Philippines and India . Cultivation outside of these areas is extremely difficult because the water chestnut needs a certain light-dark cycle, which can only be reached near the equator. Otherwise the yields are so low that it is hardly worthwhile for the food industry to grow them. The water chestnut is also cultivated in the northeast and northwest of Australia, where it is offered as a fresh product from June to November, and outside of this time also as frozen or canned goods.

Global production figures tended to decline in the mid-1990s, with Japan still harvesting 1,600 tonnes in 1984, while only 1,200 tonnes were produced in 1992, and in Taiwan the number fell from 1,200 tonnes in 1992 to 860 in 1995 Australia produces about 20 tons of water chestnuts.

swell

Michel H. Porcher et al .: Sorting Eleocharis Names. Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database - A Work in Progress. 1995-2020. Institute for Land & Food Resources. The University of Melbourne. 2004.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d David Midmore: http://www.rirdc.gov.au/pub/handbook/chinwchst.pdf (Link not available) In: The New Rural Industries - A Handbook for Farmers and Investors. Australian Government - Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. 1998.
^ ^A ^b Shiu-ying Hu: Food Plants of China . The Chinese University Press, Hong Kong, 2005. ISBN 962-201-860-2 .
↑ Jeremy Russel-Smith et al .: Aboriginal Resource and Utilization and Fire Management Practice in Western Arnhem Land, Monsoonal Northern Australia: Notes for Prehistory, Lessons for Future. In: Human Ecology. Volume 25, Number 2, June 1997. Pages 159-195. doi : 10.1023 / A: 1021970021670
^ Tropicos. Eleocharis dulcis (Burm. F.) Trin. ex Hensch.
↑ Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Eleocharis dulcis. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved August 19, 2018.
↑ Dönges, Parasitology 1988, there water onion, Eleocharis tuberosa called

Web links

Commons : Water chestnut ( Eleocharis dulcis ) - album with pictures, videos and audio files

[Midmore-1] David Midmore: http://www.rirdc.gov.au/pub/handbook/chinwchst.pdf (Link not available) In: The New Rural Industries - A Handbook for Farmers and Investors. Australian Government - Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. 1998.

[Hu-2] A ^b Shiu-ying Hu: Food Plants of China . The Chinese University Press, Hong Kong, 2005. ISBN 962-201-860-2 .

[Russel-Smith-3] Jeremy Russel-Smith et al .: Aboriginal Resource and Utilization and Fire Management Practice in Western Arnhem Land, Monsoonal Northern Australia: Notes for Prehistory, Lessons for Future. In: Human Ecology. Volume 25, Number 2, June 1997. Pages 159-195. doi : 10.1023 / A: 1021970021670

[Tropicos-4] Tropicos. Eleocharis dulcis (Burm. F.) Trin. ex Hensch.

[WCSP-5] Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Eleocharis dulcis. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved August 19, 2018.

[6] Dönges, Parasitology 1988, there water onion, Eleocharis tuberosa called