Why is Arrowhead Called 'Beauty's Leg'?

Aliases: Water Bamboo Shoots, Beauty's Leg, Jiao Bai Sun One theory suggests that the foot wraps used by women for foot-binding in the past were also called 'Jiao Bai' (腳白). When the outer leaves of arrowhead (茭白筍) are peeled, the white shoot body resembles the fair legs revealed after women removed their foot wraps, hence the names 'Jiao Bai Sun' (腳白筍) and 'Beauty's Leg' (美人腿). Additionally, the pronunciation of 'Jiao' (筊) in 茭白筍 is similar to 'Jiao' (腳) in 腳白筍, making it easier to remember. Arrowhead (茭白筍) is one of the ancient crops in Taiwan, a perennial herbaceous plant of the grass family. It is grown in water and is a shallow water crop. Due to its characteristic of growing in water, it is also called 'Water Bamboo Shoots' (水筍), and poets and scholars have referred to it as 'Beauty's Leg' (美人腿).