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''Cyperus esculentus'' (also called chufa sedge, nut grass, yellow nutsedge, tiger nut sedge, or earth almond) is a crop of the sedge family widespread across much of the world. It is native to most of the Western Hemisphere as well as southern Europe, Africa, Madagascar, the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent. It has become naturalized in many other regions, including Ukraine, China, Hawaii, Indochina, New Guinea, Java, New South Wales and various oceanic islands.〔(Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families )〕〔(Biota of North America Program, 2013 county distribution map )〕〔(Altervista Flora Italiana, Zigolo dolce, Yellow Nutsedge, ''Cyperus esculentus'' L. ) includes photographs plus distribution maps for Europe and North America〕〔(Flora of China, Vol. 23 Page 232 油莎草 you suo cao ''Cyperus esculentus'' Linnaeus var. ''sativus'' Boeckeler, Linnaea. 36: 290. 1870. )〕 ''Cyperus esculentus'' can be found wild, as a weed, or as a crop. There is evidence for its cultivation in Egypt since the sixth millennium BC, and for several centuries in Southern Europe. In Spain, ''C. esculentus'' is cultivated for its edible tubers, called earth almonds or tiger nuts, for the preparation of "horchata de chufa", a sweet, milk-like beverage. However, in most other countries, ''C. esculentus'' is considered a weed. ==History== It has been suggested that the extinct hominin ''Paranthropus boisei'', the "Nutcracker Man," subsisted on tiger nuts. Prehistoric tools with traces of ''C. esculentus'' tuber starch granules have been recovered from the early Archaic period in North America, from about 9,000 years ago, at the Sandy Hill excavation site at the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation in Mashantucket, Connecticut. The tubers are believed to have been a source of food for those Paleo-Indians. Zohary and Hopf estimate that ''C. esculentus'' "ranks among the oldest cultivated plants in Ancient Egypt." Although noting that "Chufa was no doubt an important food element in ancient Egypt during dynastic times, its cultivation in ancient times seems to have remained (totally or almost totally) an Egyptian specialty."〔Daniel Zohary and Maria Hopf, ''Domestication of plants in the Old World'', third edition (Oxford: University Press, 2000), p. 198〕 Its dry tubers have been found in tombs from predynastic times about 6000 years ago. In those times, ''C. esculentus'' tubers were consumed either boiled in beer, roasted, or as sweets made of ground tubers with honey. The tubers were also used medicinally, taken orally, as an ointment, or as an enema, and used in fumigants to sweeten the smell of homes or clothing. There are almost no contemporary records of this plant in other parts of the old World. Besides Egypt, at present ''C. esculentus'' is cultivated mainly in Spain, where it is extended for common commercial purposes in mild climate areas. The plant was introduced by the Arabs, first in the Valencia region. They are found extensively too in California and were grown by the Paiute in Owens Valley. ''C. esculentus'' is also cultivated in countries like Guatemala, Mexico, Chile, Brasil, USA, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, India, Yemen, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Sudan, South Sudan, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Northern Cameroon and Mali, where they are used primarily as animal feed or uncooked as a side dish, but in Hispanic countries they are used mainly to make horchata, a sweet, milk-like beverage. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cyperus esculentus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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