Plant · P-274

Water Chestnut

Eleocharis dulcis

Water Chestnut produces a sweet, crisp corm that stays crunchy even cooked, which is why it holds up in a stir-fry - grown in a flooded cell and harvested by draining it after the tops die back each autumn. It is one of the few crops that actually wants a long hot summer rather than merely tolerating one, since its ideal leaf-growing temperature runs right through the hottest part of the season. Beyond food, it is one of the best plants for cleaning greywater or pond water - it strips nitrogen, phosphorus and heavy metals from the water column and raises dissolved oxygen, so a single planted cell can double as a water-treatment feature and a food crop. Watch the name: "water chestnut" also names an unrelated, invasive floating plant, so buy this one by its scientific name or as corms from a food supplier, never from an aquatic nursery by common name alone.