Water spinach
| Water spinach | ||||||||||||
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Water spinach ( Ipomoea aquatica ) |
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| Ipomoea aquatica | ||||||||||||
| Forssk. |
The water spinach ( Ipomoea aquatica ) is a plant from the genus of Morningglory ( Ipomoea ). The water spinach is cultivated for the production of food, its leaves are mainly used in Asian cuisine .
description
Vegetative characteristics
The water spinach is an annual or perennial herbaceous plant that is anchored in the ground and grows either creeping or floating in water. The stem is hairless, twisting, thick and hollow, adventitious roots develop at the nodes .
The alternate leaves are arranged in a petiole and a leaf blade. The bare leaf stalk is 3 to 14 cm long. The leaf blade is very variable, it can be ovate, ovate-lanceolate, elongated or lanceolate, the length varies between 3.5 and 17 cm, the width between 0.9 and 8.5 cm. The leaf blade is rarely hairy, usually it is hairless. The base of the blades is heart-shaped, arrow-shaped, spear-shaped or occasionally cut off. The leaf is pointed or pointed towards the front. The leaf margin is whole or wavy.
Inflorescence and flower
The inflorescences consist of one to three (rarely up to five) flowers and are on 1.5 to 9 cm long peduncle, the base of which is hairy. The 1.5 to 2 mm long bracts are scale-shaped. The flower stalks are 1.5 to 5 cm long.
The five sepals are hairless and almost equally shaped. The two outer sepals are thin, oval-elongated and 7 to 8 mm long, the tip is blunt and pointed hump, the edge is whitish. The three inner sepals are usually about 8 mm long and oval-elliptical in shape. The funnel-shaped, hairless and 3.5 to 5 cm large crown is colored white, pink or purple, the center is darker.
The five stamens do not protrude beyond the crown and are unevenly shaped. The stamens are hairy. The pistil does not protrude beyond the crown either, the ovary is conical and hairless, the stigma is double-lobed.
Fruit and seeds
The woody capsule fruits have a diameter of about 1 cm and barely or possibly not at all. Each chamber of the capsule contains only one or two seeds . The seeds are densely hairy grayish, only sometimes glabrous, obliquely elongated and 6 mm long and 4 mm wide.
Chromosome number
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 30.
ingredients
The plant consists of 90% water, the dry matter consists of 48% carbohydrates , 24% protein and 13% ash .
Occurrence
The water spinach has a pantropical distribution. The original homeland is probably in Asia. The water spinach grows at altitudes from 0 to 1500 meters in damp locations on streams, ponds, rivers, but also in rice fields, on garbage dumps or in savannas .
Systematics
Synonyms for Ipomoea aquatica Forssk. are: Convolvulus repens Vahl , Ipomoea repens Roth , Ipomoea reptans Poiret , Ipomoea subdentata Miq.
Two varieties can be distinguished:
- Ipomoea aquatica Forssk. var. aquatica : It thrives in the tropics to subtropics of the Old World.
- Ipomoea aquatica var. Heterophylla (Hallier f.) Rendle : It occurs only in Namibia .
Varieties (selection)
There are some varieties, for example from Guangdong :
- cv. 'Big Green Stem' (Da-gu-qing; Ta-Ku-ch'ing)
- cv. 'Big White Stem' (Da-ji-bai; Ta-chi-pai)
- cv. 'Big Yellow Stem' (Da-ji-huang; Ta-chi-huang)
- cv. 'Thin Shell' (Bo-ke; Po-k'o)
- cv. 'Sword-leaved Hollow Vegetable' (Jian-ye-tong-cai; Chien-yeh-t'ung-ts'ai)
- cv. 'Iron-wire Stem' (Tie-xian-geng; T'ieh-hsian-keng)
- cv. 'Slender Hollow Stem' (Xi-tong; Hsi-t'ung)
The selection of the first five varieties was mainly based on the amount of yield, crisp stems and contrasting colors; the last two varieties have low yields and short, tough stems.
use
The water spinach is widely cultivated in Southeast Asia, the yield can be between 75 and 112.5 tons per hectare. After the first harvest, the plant continues to grow and branch out so that it can be used for another three to eight months, with the young shoots being harvested every two to three weeks.
In China this type of plant is one of the most common summer vegetables, while in Africa water spinach is a food in times of need. In China in particular, water spinach is also used as one of the main fodder crops in pig breeding.
Danger
Due to its wide distribution, the IUCN classifies Ipomoea aquatica as low endangered.
literature
- Ruizheng Fang, George Staples: Ipomoea aquatica. - same text online as the printed work , In: Flora of China. Volume 16, 1995, p. 307.
- HM Burkill: The useful plants of west tropical Africa. Volume 1, 1985.
- Shiu-ying Hu: Food Plants of China. The Chinese University Press, Hong Kong 2005, ISBN 962-201-860-2 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Ipomoea aquatica. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved November 24, 2018.
- ^ Ipomoea aquatica in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2013.2. Posted by: AK Gupta, 2010. Retrieved May 13, 2014.
Web links
- Ipomoea aquatica . In: U. Brunken, M. Schmidt, S. Dressler, T. Janssen, A. Thiombiano, G. Zizka: West African plants - A Photo Guide. Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt am Main 2008.
- Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database . (English: synonyms and varieties)