Name: Susak umbrella – Susak umbrella
Umbrella sedge ( Butomus umbellatus); Susak family (Butomaceae); umbrella breast
It is a perennial herbaceous plant with a thick creeping rhizome and a rosette of linear leaves. The flowers are bisexual, white-pink, on long peduncles, collected in sparse umbrella inflorescences at the end of the stem, blooming in June-July. The widespread susak is almost everywhere in Russia and Ukraine, it occurs in Transbaikalia and rarely in Yakutia, in shallow waters, banks of reservoirs, marshy meadows, often together with thickets of reeds and reeds.
Valuable food plant. For consumption, rhizomes are collected, which in dry form contain 60% protein, 3.6% fat, starch, sugar, fiber and other substances.
The rhizomes are harvested in the spring or late fall, when they contain the largest amount of starch and protein; cut into pieces, and, if necessary, also lengthwise. They are dried in the open air, and then in dryers or ovens at a temperature not higher than 80 C.
In the European part of Russia and in Siberia, rhizomes are eaten baked. They are dried and ground into flour, from which bread is baked. A mixture with the addition of 30% grain flour is usually used. From 1 kg of rhizomes, 250 g of pleasant-tasting, sweet food flour is obtained. The indigenous population of Siberia used to widely use susak in the diet, and the value of one poud of susak flour was equated to the cost of one poud of wheat flour.
Experimental studies show that the long-term use of plant rhizomes in food has a positive effect on health.
Susak is valuable food for many waterfowl and mammals – muskrats, beavers, moose. In Japan and China, the plant is often grown as an ornamental.