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Yellow velvetleaf
Limnocharis flava
Limnocharis flava (commonly known as yellow velvetleaf, sawah flower rush, sawah lettuce) is a species of aquatic flowering plant which is native to Mexico, Central America, South America, Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic but widely naturalized in southern and southeastern Asia: India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and southern China (Guangdong, Yunnan).
Limnocharis flava is roughly 50 centimetres (20 in) tall growing in clumps. Its triangular-shaped leaves and hollow stems are glabrous. Its inflorescences have a very characteristic shape, producing three-lobed yellow flowers about 1.5 cm in diameter. The fruits are spherical. Although it is not a floating plant, its seeds are carried away by currents.
From the article Limnocharis flava on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
At the table
Traditionally this plant is an important vegetable in parts of Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Isan (Thailand) and parts of India, where the central flower stalk and the leaves are used in soups, curries, salads and stir-fries. The immature flower buds are also eaten. In Isan the leaf is eaten raw with nam phrik. Owing to its flat taste, in some areas it is considered "poor people's food" or emergency food, eaten whenever there is not much else left. This characteristic was put into song by Muhammad Arief, in the 1940s hit Genjer-genjer in the Banyuwangi language in Java.
Wikipedia: “As food”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Limnocharis flava in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 283710.