Sagittaria latifolia

Species of aquatic plant

Sagittaria latifolia is a plant found in shallow wetlands and is sometimes known as broadleaf arrowhead, duck potato, Indian potato, or wapato. This plant produces edible tubers that have traditionally been extensively used by Native Americans.

Sagittaria latifolia is a variably sized perennial, ranging from in length and growing in colonies that can cover large areas of ground. The roots are white and thin, with the green and white mother plant producing white tubers ranging from long and deep, covered with a purplish skin. The plant produces rosettes of leaves and an inflorescence on a long rigid scape. The leaves are extremely variable, from in length and thin to wedge shaped like those of S. cuneata. Spongy and solid, the leaves have parallel venation meeting in the middle and the extremities. The inflorescence is a raceme about above water and composed of white flowers whorled by threes, blooming from July to September.

Sagittaria latifolia is native to southern Canada and most of the contiguous United States, as well as Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Cuba. It is also naturalized in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Bhutan, Australia and much of Europe (France, Spain, Italy, Romania, Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and European Russia). In Mexico, it is reported from Campeche, Nayarit, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Puebla, Jalisco, Durango, Tlaxcala, Estado de México, Veracruz and Michoacán. It can be found in wet areas such as ponds and swamps. This plant is vulnerable to aphids and spider mites.

This plant is easily cultivated in of water with no or little current. The tubers are planted well spaced (no more than 12 plants per square meter) at the end of May at a depth of Fertilize with decomposed manure. They can be multiplied through seeding or division in July. The starchy tubers, produced by rhizomes beneath the wet ground surface, have long been an important food source to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, along with those of S. cuneata.

The starchy tubers were consumed by Native Americans and Cherokee nations. Other edible parts include late summer buds and fruits.

The name of Shubenacadie, a community located in central Nova Scotia, Canada, means "abounding in ground nuts" (i. e., broadleaf arrowhead) in the Mi'kmaq language.