Water chestnut
Eleocharis dulcis
A sedge grown for a crisp corm, the canned ‘water chestnut’ of stir-fries. Not a chestnut tree and not a caltrop water chestnut (Trapa) unless you mean that species — grocery cans are Eleocharis.
GROW → HARVEST → EAT → DRY → POWDER → CAPSULE → GUMMY — forms are not equivalent. Food first.
Identity
What it is
A sedge grown for a crisp corm, the canned ‘water chestnut’ of stir-fries. Not a chestnut tree and not a caltrop water chestnut (Trapa) unless you mean that species — grocery cans are Eleocharis.
Edible portions
- corms
Absence of a portion from this list means it is not treated as food here — not that every other part is toxic.
Growing
- Climate. 9–11 wet; paddy crop
- Light. Full sun, standing water in season
- Soil. Paddy mud
- Planting. A wetland crop. Not a tree.
- Harvest. Corms from the mud after tops yellow.
Preparation and culinary uses
- Stir-fry for crunch, even from a can (processed but still this corm)
Nutrition and compounds
- Vitamins (qualitative, well-known associations). fiber — not milligram values.
AAA interpretation Food first. These associations explain why a plant shows up in a nutrient conversation — they are not a supplement shopping list.
Next steps
Sources
- USDA PLANTS Database — taxonomy and range (verify current entries)
- USDA FoodData Central — nutrient profiles for foods (verify current entries; this page does not invent milligrams)
- State cooperative extension growing guides — verify for your region
Honest incompleteness is preferred to fabricated completeness. If a section is missing, no record for it is attached here — not a claim that the plant lacks that characteristic, and not that it was omitted as a secret.
Internal quality class A. Strong page: distinctive plant facts plus practical growing or kitchen use.