water chestnuts
• noun
The crisp, white-fleshed, edible subterranean corms of a sedge plant (Eleocharis dulcis), widely used as a culinary vegetable in Asian cuisine.
"She added sliced water chestnuts to the vegetable stir-fry to give the dish a refreshing crunch."
Grass-like aquatic sedges of the family Cyperaceae (Eleocharis dulcis), native to tropical and subtropical marshes of Asia, Africa, and Australia, cultivated in flooded paddies for their edible corms.
"The farmers waded into the shallow marsh to harvest the mature water chestnuts from the mud."
Floating annual aquatic plants of the genus Trapa (especially Trapa natans) native to Eurasia and Africa, bearing horned, nut-like fruits with starchy seeds.
"Dense mats of floating water chestnuts covered the surface of the slow-moving river."
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