This is a picture taken in the market. On the right, cabbage; on the left, jiao1 bai2 sun3 茭白筍 (or sometimes jiao3 bai2 sun3 腳白筍, but that's jiao3, not jiao1, as sticklers would have it.), known in English as water bamboo or Manchurian wild rice. Mas Yamaguchi
writes that it belongs to the same family as the common bamboo and is closely related to wild rice of North America. (Parts of it
look like rice, too.) It has been grown since ancient times in East Asia.
...stem enlargement occurs after about 4 months growth due to a fungus, which prevents floral initiation but allows the stem to elongate and enlarge. Harvest must be made before the fungus goes into the reproductive phase when the black smut (spores) is produced. With time there appears black longitudinal streaks in the swollen stem and eventually the entire stem turns black, very much like the corn ear smut.
Funny thing: other varities of Zizania are
known as zizanie in French, but apparently not this one (zizanie means discord in French).
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