Eleocharis tuberosa is a kind of stem, and it is a kind of bulb with the swollen tip of underground stolon. It also has a slender creeping rhizome, and a tuber is born at the top of the rhizome, which is water chestnut. Its shape looks a bit like a horseshoe, so some areas also call it a horseshoe. Its skin is purple-black, its meat is white, its origin is China, and now it is cultivated in many parts of the world with many varieties.

Water chestnut (scientific name: water chestnut? (Burm。 F.) Trin) is a plant of Eleocharis in Cyperaceae. Creeping rhizomes are slender. Most of the culms are tufted, straight, slender, cylindrical, 40- 100 cm high, 2-3 mm in diameter, gray-green, smooth, hairless and septate. After drying, the surface of the stalk has knots and many longitudinal stripes.

There are only 2-3 leaf sheaths at the base of the stem; Sheath is light brown, smooth, hairless, membranous, clasping stems, with oblique sheath mouth and sharp tip, 7- 15 cm long. Spikelets are cylindrical, 2-4 cm long, about 3 mm in diameter and light green.

Nutlets are obovate, oblate, biconvex, 2 mm long and 65438±0.2mm wide, smooth, yellow at the top and hexagonal in surface cells. Style base is flat, long and narrow triangle, not spongy, and there are inconspicuous rings at the base. The texture of the ring is the same as that of the nutlet, but the color is lighter. The flowering and fruiting period is May-65438+1October.

Water chestnut is one of the special vegetables in China. Generally, it is eaten together with underground swollen bulbs, which can be eaten raw, cooked or cooked. Especially suitable for canned food, it is called "water horseshoe" and is one of the main condiments in restaurants. Starch can also be extracted, which, together with lotus root and water chestnut, is called starch III. It is cold and slippery in nature, sweet and cool in taste, and can benefit qi and neutralize middle warmer. At the same time, the tubular leaflike stems above the ground can quench thirst and reduce fever.