EDIBLE AQUATICS
by Cathy Wilkinson Barash © 2006
|
PLANT
NAME |
BOTANIC
NAME |
EDIBLE PART |
REMARKS |
|
Aquatic mint |
Mentha aquatica |
leaves |
Cake; ice cream; best mint for juleps |
|
Bog cranberry |
Oxycoccus oxycoccos |
fruit |
Available grocery stores—fresh, frozen & canned |
|
Brooklime |
Veronica beccabunga |
leaves |
Salads; similar to watercress |
|
Bur reed |
Sparganium |
leaves, stems, tubers, tender rootstalks |
Raw in salads; steamed with butter; sautéed in butter; stir-fried |
|
Bulrush |
Scirpus lacustris |
young shoots; roots |
Young shoots in spring roots raw, cooked, ground into flour |
|
Cattail |
Typha latifolia |
pollen, hearts. spike heads;
new shoots; seeds |
Pollen in biscuits;
shoots/hearts raw like celery; young spike heads like corn; new shoots raw or
cooked like asparagus; roasted seeds nutty
|
|
Chameleon plant |
Houttuynia cordata |
leaves |
Slightly bitter lemon flavor |
|
Common reed |
Phragmites communis |
young shoots; sugary fluid; stem; roots |
Young shoots raw or steamed; Native American sweet; dried stem ground
into flour=marshmallows; ground roots as porridge |
|
Daylily |
Hemerocallis spp. |
bud, flower, young leaf, tuber |
Not red varieties, check for taste Chinese cuisine |
|
Duck
potato/ |
Sagittaria latifolia |
tuber |
Sagittaria sagittifolia -
USDA noxious weed; nutty flavor; cook like potato |
|
Flowering rush |
Butomus umbellatus |
leaf, tuber |
Noxious weed – New
Hampshire cook tubers like potatoes
|
|
Galingale |
Cyperus esculentens,
C. longus |
roots |
Ground
as spice for pies, soups, sweets; allspice/nutmeg flavor |
|
Giant
water lily |
Victoria
amazonica |
seeds |
Dried
seeds like popcorn |
|
Lemon grass |
Cymbopogon citratus |
leaves, tuber |
Lemony; Asian cuisine |
|
Lotus |
Nelumbo
spp. |
root, seeds |
Tubers like sweet potatoes, seeds pounded for baking |
|
Marsh mallow |
Althaea officinalis |
leaf, tuber
|
Confection made from tubers |
|
Pickerel weed/ pickerel rush |
Pontederia cordata |
Seeds; young leafstalks |
Seeds raw or ground to flour; young leafstalks raw or cooked |
|
Pondweed |
Potamogeton natans
|
tubers, flowering spikes
|
Baked or braised tubers; spikes
like spinach |
|
Rice |
Oryza sativa
|
seeds
|
Carolina is soft, round variety, 160 cvs. |
|
Spatterdock; yellow water lily |
Nuphar lutea |
seeds, flowers; leaf stalks |
Seeds good for popcorn; grind for soup thickener; flowers for beverage;
leaf stalks like spinach |
|
Sweet flag |
Acorus calamus |
young leaves, rhizomes |
|
|
Taro |
Colocasia spp. |
tuber, leaves |
Tuber like potatoes; leaves a wrap for cooking |
|
Vietnamese cilantro |
Polygonum odoratum |
leaves |
Available in Asian markets |
|
Wasabi |
Wasabi japonica (Eutrema
japonica) |
rhizome |
Available in Asian markets |
|
Water celery |
Oenanthe javanica |
leaves |
Use like celery |
|
Water chestnuts |
Eleoricharis spp. |
tuber |
Available Asian markets & farmers
markets; canned in grocery stores
|
|
Water lily |
Nymphaea odorata |
flowers, leaves, flower buds |
Young flowers raw; cook
young leaves & buds
|
|
Water spinach |
Ipomoea aquatica |
leaves |
On USDA noxious plant list
|
|
Watercress |
Nasturtium officinale |
leaves, stems |
Salads, sandwiches; spicy, peppery |
|
Wild rice |
Zizania aquatica |
seeds |
Available
in grocery store |
Waterlilies
| Lotus |
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