The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Cyperus esculentus
Also called Earth Almond, Earth Nut, Tiger Nut, Edible cyperus, Yellow Nut Grass, Yellow Nutgrass, Water Grass
Yellow nutsedge is a sedge-family plant grown for its edible tubers (tiger nuts) and widely regarded as an invasive weed in many regions. It spreads by seed, rhizomes and tubers, so the key to growing it is controlling where it spreads.
Cyperus esculentus (also called chufa, tiger nut, atadwe, yellow nutsedge, earth almond, and in Chishona, pfende) is a species of plant in the sedge family widespread across much of the world. It is found in most of the Eastern Hemisphere, including Southern Europe, Africa and Madagascar, as well as the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. C. esculentus is cultivated for its edible tubers, called earth almonds or tiger nuts (due to the stripes on their tubers and their hard shell), as a snack food and for the preparation of horchata de chufa, a sweet, milk-like beverage.
Cyperus esculentus can be found wild, as a weed, or as a crop. It is an invasive species outside its native range, and is readily transported accidentally to become invasive. In many countries, C. esculentus is considered a weed.
Cyperus esculentus is cultivated in Egypt, Spain, Nigeria, the United States, Guatemala, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, India, Yemen, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Sudan, South Sudan, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Ghana, Niger, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Cameroon, and Mali, where they are used primarily as animal feed or as a side dish, but in Hispanic countries they are used mainly to make horchata, a sweet, milk-like beverage.
Cyperus esculentus is a highly invasive species in Oceania, Mexico, some regions of the United States (where it is native), and the Caribbean, mainly by seed dispersion. It is readily transported internationally, and is adaptable to re-establish in varied climate and soil environments. In Japan, it is an exotic clonal weed favorable to establish in wet habitats. Cyperus esculentus serves as a larval host for Euphyes vestris (dun skipper)
Dried tiger nut has a smooth, tender, sweet, and nutty taste. It can be consumed raw, roasted, dried, baked or as tiger nut milk, tiger nut drink or oil.
Tapertip flatsedge · Umbrella Sedge · Jointed flatsedge · Slender flatsedge · Mullumbimby Couch · Cyperus bulbosus · Variable flatsedge · Piedmont flatsedge · Globe flatsedge · Tall flatsedge · Haspan flatsedge · Smooth flatsedge
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cyperus esculentus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
