A floating plant producing stems up to 2 metres long, it should be grown in still lime-free water up to 1.8 metres deep. Prefers a rich soil. A good plant for the water's edge but it is difficult to establish. The submerged parts of the plant are conspicuously covered in a mucilaginous jelly. Plants are not fully hardy in Britain. According to another report this species requires a minimum winter temperature of 18°c and can only be grown in aquaria and ponds in heated greenhouses.

The young curled leaf tips, which are coated with a thick transparent mucilage, are eaten as a salad with vinegar, sake and soy sauce, or they added to soups as a thickener. Considered a great delicacy in Japan where they are often bottled and sold in local markets. They are mainly used in the spring. A nutritional analysis is available. Root - cooked. Peeled then boiled and eaten, they can also be dried and stored for later use or ground into a powder.

Seed - no details have been found for this species. Seeds of many water plants have a short viability if allowed to dry out so it is probably best to sow the seed as soon as it is ripe in a warm greenhouse or to store it in water until the spring and to sow then. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in the greenhouse for at least their first winter. Just cover the pots with water and then increase the depth as the plants grow. Plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts. Division in spring.

Oligotrophic or mesotrophic ponds, lakes, and sluggish streams from sea level to 2000 metres.