Can the dragon-bone-petal water snowflake be eaten? What uses does this aquatic plant have?
Distribution of aquatic plants in Taiwan, China. Due to different environments, they develop different appearances. Common aquatic plants in Taiwan, China, in order to adapt to environments with different degrees of moisture, have developed various lifestyles, and can be roughly divided into submerged plants, floating-leaf plants, free-floating plants, emergent plants, and wetland plants. Common submerged plants include hornwort and Brazilian waterweed; floating-leaf plants include water lilies and water caltrop; free-floating plants include water hyacinth and mosquito fern; emergent plants include hehua and duck tongue grass; wetland plants include calla lily and wild ginger lily.
Aquatic plants in Taiwan, China, are rich and diverse. Most of them you may have seen but may not necessarily be able to name.
Aquatic plants under threat: Longtan water snowflake has become extinct in the wild
Aquatic plants in Taiwan, China, usually live in lowland swamps, slow-flowing small streams, and small wetland areas formed by springs; a few grow in ponds in hilly or high mountain areas. However, because the former habitats mostly overlap with human activities, they are easily disturbed or destroyed by human activities, leaving native aquatic plants displaced; or because humans bring strong invasive alien species into the habitats, such as apple snails and water hyacinth, these also pose a major threat to them. For example, Longtan water snowflake, a new species only published in 2002, was originally distributed in wetlands on the outskirts of Longtan, Taoyuan, and is endemic to Taiwan, China, but because its habitat has been destroyed by human activities, little of it remains in the wild at present.
Longtan water snowflake is a perennial floating-leaf herbaceous plant. Its leaves are heart-shaped, about 12 cm long, dark green, and its appearance often makes people mistake it for a mini version of a water lily. It blooms in May, and the flower shape resembles that of the tung tree flower. The corolla is white, and the upper part is densely covered with fine hairs.
Commercially cultivated dragon-bone-petal water snowflake: what uses does the dragon-bone-petal water snowflake have? The dragon-bone-petal water snowflake sounds like such a technical term that everyone should find it very unfamiliar, but if we translate it into the dish name "stir-fried water lotus," most people know its taste. Dragon-bone-petal water snowflake can be used for water surface greening. Its leaf shape resembles a shrunken water lily, and it is very beautiful for decorating water surfaces and can also be eaten. The water lotus we usually eat is its leaves and stems.