Most of us do it H2O chestnut only as those white , crunchy gently sweet-scented additions to countless Taiwanese recipe . But canned water chestnuts are a far call from their novel counterparts found at distinctiveness groceries . Although they count unmistakably like the chestnut that produce on trees , they are n’t round the bend at all . To learn all about how these entrancing vegetables produce , scan on !
If They’re Not Nuts, What Are They?
Chinese water chestnuts ( Eleocharis dulcis ) come from perennial aquatic plants of the Sedge ( Cyperaceae ) house . Although they look like grass , they’regrownnot for their stems but for their edible underground corm . The coconut - apple flavored vegetables are much easier to pare than thechestnutsthey’re refer after .
How Chinese Water Chestnuts Grow
During spring and summer , water chestnuts put all their energy into grow the tubular , stemlike leafage they demand for photosynthesis . Once the day begin to shorten in midsummer , they start hive away some of their photosynthesized dinero in modified underground stem , or corm .
As the corms manifold , they get larger and angelic and the industrial plant ’ above - ground parts change by reversal yellow and die . Over a seven - month growing season , each corm can multiply oodles of time . The end is to reap all of them at the peak of fragrancy , but before they begin to sprout unexampled shank .
Expert gardener ’s lead : Do you wonder why water chestnut corms stay so crunchy even when cooked or can ? The answer lies in the phenolic substances , including ferulic dot , that tone their cell wall . As an antioxidant , ferulic acid may aid lower line of descent pressure and blood sugar grade .
Where Chinese Water Chestnuts Grow
Formosan water supply chestnut are native to the wetlands of tropical Asia , where the baseless plants prosper in the summertime heat energy and saturated , sloughy soil . Smaller uncivilised populations also occur in :
Most cultivated Chinese water chestnuts add up from mainland China , Hong Kong or Taiwan . In the United States , they can be cultivated inUSDA zones 8 through 11 . They need a frost - free growing time of year of at least seven month . Because of the project involve in harvest the corms , large - scale U.S. finish has yet to succeed .
Beware the “Other” Water Chestnut
Another aquatic plant sometimes cultivate for its nutty fruit is the European water chestnut ( Trapa natans ) , or piss caltrop . In the course of a growing season , one industrial plant can become 100 — and its ballock ’ spines can bottom shoes . In the U.S. , water caltrop is on the trespassing or noxious weed list in 13 land and the District of Columbia .
