Water caltrop
(Redirected from Trapa natans)
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| Water caltrop | |
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| Boiled water caltrop (T. bicornis) seeds | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | |
| (unranked): | |
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| Order: | |
| Family: | |
| Subfamily: | Trapoideae
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| Genus: | Trapa
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| Type species | |
| Trapa natans | |
| Species | |
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The water caltrop or water chestnut (although not to be confused with Eleocharis dulcis) is an aquatic plant whose black, winged fruits each contain a single, starchy seed.
The fruits of T. bicornis have two prongs and look somewhat like a bat, but I believe some of the other species have four prongs like an actual caltrop.
The seed was palatable and starchy like a chestnut, but I found the "sulfur" or "sewer gas" smell of these to be off-putting. It's possible that fresher ones have a more pleasant smell.
Acknowledgements
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Water caltrop, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.