Winter potato
Winter potato
Scientific name: bamboo taro
Also known as: asparagus potato Shagumi (western Guangdong area)
Bamboo taro family
Bamboo taro genus
Botanical Resources Distribution: distribution of the American tropics, is now widely planted in the tropics; China's Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan is commonly cultivated.
Domestic distribution: common cultivation in southern China.
Foreign distribution: native to tropical America, now widely planted in the tropics.
English Flora: 24:382
Latin Name: Maranta arundinacea L-auct. Nen Lour
Examination: From the Atlas of Higher Plants of China.
The rhizome of winter flour potato is fleshy, it looks like bamboo carrot, light yellow, 5 to 7 centimeters long, with white flesh, rich in starch, and the rhizome is almost full of starch. It can be used as a thickener for soups, flavored thickeners, puddings, and snacks. Particularly suitable for milk custard and other foods that can not be cooked for too long.
The winter yam can be cooked or starch extracted, and is cultivated in southern China. The edible starch produced by the rhizome of the winter flour potato is called bamboo taro flour. It is a perennial herb with fleshy tubers on creeping rhizomes, and the above-ground stems are much-branched, about 1.5 meters (5?6 feet) tall. Leaves on the branches are numerous, with long, narrow leaf sheaths and large, spreading oval blades. Flowers are few, white, and short-stalked. Harvested just before the dormant season when tubers are at their starchiest. Peel the root, grind it with water, dry it into powder, and then wash it several times to become bamboo taro powder.
Prefer hot and humid semi-shady environment, fear of cold, avoid strong light.
Bamboo taro powder is almost all starch, no vitamins, protein content of only 0.2%. Can be used to make soup, sauce, pudding and tail food snacks thickener. Add water and boil into a transparent, odorless delicious paste. Bamboo taro powder is fine compared with other starches can be cooked at a lower temperature and a shorter period of time, but also easy to digest, especially suitable for doing can not be overcooked milk custard and other egg products, but also suitable for the production of light, low-salt and low-protein food.
Medicinal value
Effects: clearing the lungs and relieving cough, clearing heat and diuretic.
Subject: Used to treat lung-heat cough, urinary astringency of bladder dampness and heat.
Taste: sweet, light, cool. It enters the lung and bladder meridians.
Use and dosage: Internal: 9 to 15 grams, decoction with water.
The climate in western Guangdong is ideal for growing winter yam, and the deep, well-drained sandy loam soil rich in organic matter is particularly suitable for the growth of winter yam. The seeds are sown around January each year and harvested at the end of the year until January of the following year.
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