Fat choy

Fat choy
Fat choy
Traditional Chinese	髮菜
Simplified Chinese	发菜
Literal meaning	"hair vegetable"
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	fàcài
IPA	[fâ.tsʰâɪ]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization	faat choi
Jyutping	faat3 coi3
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	頭毛菜
Hokkien POJ
Transcriptions
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ	thâu-mn̂g-chhài

Fat choy
	Nostoc flagelliforme under a microscope
Scientific classification
Domain:	Bacteria
Kingdom:	Bacillati
Phylum:	Cyanobacteriota
Class:	Cyanophyceae
Order:	Nostocales
Family:	Nostocaceae
Genus:	Nostoc
Species:	N. flagelliforme
Binomial name
	Nostoc flagelliforme; Harv. ex Molinari, Calvo-Pérez & Guiry, 2016
Synonyms
	Nematonostoc flagelliforme (Bornet & Flahault) Nylander ex Elenkin 1934; Nostoc commune var. flagelliforme Bornet & Flahault, 1886;

Fat choy (traditional Chinese: 髮菜; simplified Chinese: 发菜; pinyin: fàcài; Jyutping: faat³ coi³; Nostoc flagelliforme) is a terrestrial cyanobacterium (a type of photosynthetic bacteria) that is used as a vegetable in Chinese cuisine. When dried, the product has the appearance of black hair. For that reason, its name in Chinese means "hair vegetable". When soaked, fat choy has a soft texture which is like very fine vermicelli.

^ ^a ^b Calvo-Pérez, Juan Diego; Molinari-Novoa, Eduardo A.; Guiry, Michael D. (23 March 2016). "Validation of Nostoc flagelliforme (Nostocaceae, Cyanobacteria)" (PDF). Notulae Algarum (2): 1–2. ISSN 2009-8987. Retrieved 15 January 2019.

[Calvo-Pérez-1] Calvo-Pérez, Juan Diego; Molinari-Novoa, Eduardo A.; Guiry, Michael D. (23 March 2016). "Validation of Nostoc flagelliforme (Nostocaceae, Cyanobacteria)" (PDF). Notulae Algarum (2): 1–2. ISSN 2009-8987. Retrieved 15 January 2019.

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