A water chestnut plant of the Alismataceae family, a perennial herb that grows in paddy fields, with arrowhead-shaped leaves and white flowers. It has an underground corm, yellowish or whitish, which is eaten as a vegetable. Edible. Also known as Chinese water chestnut. This variety differs from the original variety in that the plant is tall and robust; the leaves are large and thick, with an obtuse rounded apex, ovate to broadly ovate; the creeping stem ends in a bulbous corm, which is ovate or spherical, up to 5-8×4-6 cm; the cone-shaped inflorescence is tall, 20-60 cm long, sometimes over 80 cm, with 1-2 whorls of female flowers at the bottom, the main axis with 3-4 whorls of female flowers located above the lateral branches; male flowers in multiple whorls, growing at the top, forming a large cone-shaped inflorescence, often lying diagonally in the water during fruiting; the fruiting receptacle is flatter, about 4-5 mm in diameter, 3 mm high. The seeds are brown with small protuberances.
Grown extensively in provinces south of the Yangtze River in China, as well as in Japan and Korea. The bulbs can be used as vegetables and for other purposes.