- Scientific Name: Eleocharis dulcis (Burm.f.) Trin. ex Hensch.
- Ref: Vita Rumphii :186 1833
- Synonyms:
- Andropogon dulcis Burm.f.
- Carex tuberosa (Schult.) Blanco
- Eleocharis austrocaledonica Vieill.
- E. equisetina J.Presl & C.Presl
- E. indica (Lour.) Druce
- E. plantaginea (Retz.) Roem. & Schult.
- E. plantaginea var. stolonifera Boeckeler
- E. plantagineiformis Tang & F.T.Wang
- E. plantaginoides (Rottb.) Domin
- E. tuberosa Schult.
- E. tumida (Roxb.) Schult.
- Heleocharis dulcis (Burm.f.) Trin.
- Limnochloa plantaginea (Retz.) Nees
- L. tumida (Roxb.) Nees
- Scirpus dubius Roxb.
- S. plantagineus Retz.
- S. plantaginoides Rottb.
- S. spiralis Willd. ex Kunth
- S. tuberosus Roxb.
- S. tumidus Roxb.
- English Common Name: Chinese water chestnut
- Chinese Common Name: 荸荠 bíqi, 马蹄 mǎtí, 乌芋 wūyù, 马荠 [潮州]bhê2 ci5
- Japanese Common Name: シログワイ [白慈姑] shiroguwai, イヌクログワイ [犬黒慈姑] inukuroguwai
- Family: Cyperaceae
- Genus: Eleocharis
- Distribution: Field margins, lake margins, commonly cultivated; near sea level to 1500 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hubei, W Hunan, Jiangsu, Taiwan [India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; tropical Africa, N Australia, Indian Ocean islands, Madagascar, Pacific islands].
- Photo: 09/12/2019, Hangzhou Botanical Garden, Zhejiang
Perennials. Stolons slender, often terminated by a tuber. Culms erect, grayish green, tufted, 15-60 cm tall, 1.5-3 mm thick, cylindric, smooth, glabrous, surface with transverse septa, nodes evident when dry. Leaf sheaths 2 or 3, greenish yellow, purplish red, or brown, 2-20 cm, mouth obliquely truncate, apex acute. Spikelet pale green, cylindric, 1.5-4 cm × 6-7 mm, many flowered. Basal 2 glumes empty, amplexicaul for whole spikelet base; fertile glumes grayish green, laxly imbricate, broadly oblong to ovate-oblong, 3-5 × 2.5-3.5(-4) mm, subleathery, pale brown puncticulate and finely striate, margin pale yellow and membranous, apex obtuse. Perianth bristles 7, ca. 1.5 × as long as nutlet, retrorsely spinulose. Stigmas 3. Nutlet brown when mature, broadly obovoid, ca. 2.5 × 1.8 mm, biconvex, essentially smooth but faintly and finely cancellate with hexagonal to oblong hexagonal epidermal cells, apex not constricted but with an annular thickening; persistent style base triangular-attenuate, flattened, not spongy, base ca. 1/2 as wide as nutlet. Fl. and fr. May-Oct. 2n = 38, ca. 108. (Flora of China)
