Water Chestnut

Aquatic herb. The fibrous roots can reach up to 30 cm in length. Stolons are well-developed, with internodes 3-15 cm long, diameter about 4 mm, bearing buds at the top and producing overwintering buds. Leaves are clustered, often floating, occasionally extending above the water surface; leaf blades are heart-shaped or round, 4.5-5 cm long, 5-5.5 cm wide, with rounded apex, cordate base, entire margin, honeycomb-like aerenchyma on the abaxial surface, and stomata; leaf veins 5, occasionally 7, midrib distinct, forming an acute angle with the first pair of lateral main veins. Male inflorescences axillary; peduncles 0.5-3.5 cm long; two spathe, membranous, translucent, with purple-red stripes, containing 5-6 male flowers inside, only one opening at a time; pedicels 5-6.5 cm long; sepals 3, free, oblong, about 6 mm long, 3 mm wide, usually with red spots, especially at the apex, acute at the tip; petals 3, yellow, alternate to sepals, broadly obovate or round, about 1.3 cm long, 1.7 cm wide, slightly notched at the apex, narrowed at the base, with papillate prominences on the adaxial surface; stamens 12, arranged in 4 whorls, the innermost 3 are reduced, the outermost 3 are opposite to petals, the base is fused with the stamens of the third whorl, the second whorl is fused with the base of the reduced stamens of the innermost whorl, the outermost whorl and the second whorl are about 3 mm long, anthers about 1.5 mm long, the third whorl stamens about 3.5 mm long, anthers smaller, filaments with papillae on the adaxial surface, reduced stamens with papillae at the tip, hairy at the base; pollen spherical, with raised patterns on the surface. Small female spathe, containing 1 female flower inside; pedicels 4-8.5 cm long; large flowers, about 3 cm in diameter; sepals 3, rounded at the apex, about 11 mm long, 4 mm wide, usually with red spots; petals 3, white, with a yellow base, broadly obovate to round, larger than the petals of the male flower, about 1.5 cm long, 1.8 cm wide, with papillate prominences on the adaxial surface; 6 staminodes paired, opposite to the sepals; 3 glands, yellow, reniform, opposite to the sepals; style 6, each 2 deeply cleft, about 4 mm long, densely covered with glandular hairs; ovary inferior, incompletely 6-locular. Fruits are berry-like, spherical to oblong, 0.8-1 cm long, about 7 mm in diameter, with several grooves. Seeds are numerous, elliptical, with a gradually pointed apex; seed coat with many hair-like prominences. Flowering and fruiting period: August to October.