name: Chinese Chives
flavor_db_name_variants: chinese chives
source: foodb
status: draft
food_db_id: Chinese chives
id: 216
name_scientific: Allium tuberosum
description: Allium tuberosum, (commonly known as garlic chives, Chinese chives, Oriental garlic, Chinese leek, also known by the Chinese name kow choi (also transliterated as gau choy; Chinese: ??; pinyin: Ji?cài; Wade?Giles: Chiu3-ts'ai4; Jyutping: gau2 coi3), or the Japanese name nira, is a vegetable related to onion. The Chinese name for the species is variously adapted and transliterated as cuchay, jiucai, kucai, kuchay, or kutsay in Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. It is also sometimes called "green nira grass" where "nira" is Romanization of the Japanese word "??" which means garlic chives. The plant has a distinctive growth habit with strap-shaped leaves[5] unlike either onion or garlic, and straight thin white-flowering stalks that are much taller than the leaves. The flavor is more like garlic than chives. It grows in slowly expanding perennial clumps, but also readily sprouts from seed. In warmer areas, garlic chives may remain green all year round. In cold climates, aerial parts of garlic chives will die back completely to the ground and the roots/rhizomes will over-winter and then re-sprout in spring time.
itis_id: 506483
wikipedia_id: Chinese_chives
picture_file_name: 216.jpg
picture_content_type: image/jpeg
picture_file_size: 47909
picture_updated_at: 2012-04-20T09:37:20.000Z
legacy_id: 231
food_group: Herbs and Spices
food_subgroup: Herbs
food_type: Type 1
created_at: 2011-02-09T00:37:26.000Z
updated_at: 2019-05-14T18:04:19.000Z
creator_id: null
updater_id: null
export_to_afcdb: false
category: specific
ncbi_taxonomy_id: 4683
export_to_foodb: true
public_id: FOOD00216