Eleocharis tuberosa is a perennial herb of Eleocharis in Cyperaceae, with a height of 15-60 cm, clustered stems, cylindrical flowers, cylindrical spikelets and many flowers. Water chestnut nuts are broadly obovate and biconvex. Water chestnut is mainly divided into wild type and cultivated type.

In ancient times, water chestnut was mostly eaten as fruit, and in famine years, people used it to satisfy their hunger. In the Ming Dynasty, Wang Pan and Wang Hong gradually wrote about it. Water chestnut juice is sweet and nutritious. In addition to raw food, hot food can also be made into all kinds of dishes suitable for both meat and vegetables. Water chestnut is also a traditional Chinese medicine, with seedlings and roots.

Growth habit

The growth period of water chestnut is 140-200 days. Bulbs can overwinter in the soil. In the following spring, the terminal bud produces a short stem, and the base of the stem produces a slender fibrous root, which goes deep into the soil for about 20-30 cm, and produces a time-like stem (tubular stem) upward, and tillers continuously to form a mother plant. 3-5 stolons are pulled out from the lateral buds, and when they reach 10- 15 cm, the terminal buds pull the leaflike stems to the ground to form 30-40 new tillers and secondary tillers.

Tillering is stopped in summer (late September in Hangzhou, China), and new bulbs are formed at the top of stolons in the later period. At the same time, under the condition of low temperature and short sunshine in autumn, the aboveground stems also stopped growing, and the flower stems were pulled out from the ramet center, forming a multi-flowered spike at the top, which reached full bloom before and after the Millennium. Nutlets are grayish brown and obovate, mature from cold dew to first frost, and usually do not germinate easily.