Watercress
Nasturtium officinale
A true aquatic mustard, peppery and hollow-stemmed. Needs clean moving water or a very wet bed. Different from garden nasturtium (Tropaeolum).
GROW → HARVEST → EAT → DRY → POWDER → CAPSULE → GUMMY — forms are not equivalent. Food first.
Identity
What it is
A true aquatic mustard, peppery and hollow-stemmed. Needs clean moving water or a very wet bed. Different from garden nasturtium (Tropaeolum).
Edible portions
- leaves
- stems
Absence of a portion from this list means it is not treated as food here — not that every other part is toxic.
Growing
- Climate. Cool water perennial
- Light. Part sun
- Soil. Clean water / wet soil
- Planting. Cuttings root in water. Do not harvest from polluted streams.
- Harvest. Cut-and-come tips.
Preparation and culinary uses
- Sandwiches, soup, salad
Nutrition and compounds
- Vitamins (qualitative, well-known associations). vitamin K, vitamin C, vitamin A — not milligram values.
AAA interpretation Food first. These associations explain why a plant shows up in a nutrient conversation — they are not a supplement shopping list.
Safety
- Wild water can carry pathogens and liver flukes in some regions. Grow it in clean water.
Next steps
Sources
- USDA PLANTS Database — taxonomy and range (verify current entries)
- USDA FoodData Central — nutrient profiles for foods (verify current entries; this page does not invent milligrams)
- State cooperative extension growing guides — verify for your region
Honest incompleteness is preferred to fabricated completeness. If a section is missing, no record for it is attached here — not a claim that the plant lacks that characteristic, and not that it was omitted as a secret.
Internal quality class A. Strong page: distinctive plant facts plus practical growing or kitchen use.