ARROWHEAD/DUCK-POTATO Sagittaria spp.
Common arrowhead or Duck-potato is a colony-forming, aquatic perennial, rising above water level to a height of 3 ft. Members of the Water-Plantain Family grow in water, in swamps, on muddy banks, or occasionally in wet sand.
The rhizomes, young leaves, young shoots and young inflorescences are all edible, but it is the corms that are most widely valued for food. Arrowheads are also important sources of food for ducks and geese.
Arrowhead tubers were high valued food sources for Native North Americans who consumed them raw, boiled, dried, baked, roasted, mashed, ground into flour, or candied with maple sugar. Be sure to only eat from arrowhead plants growing in unpolluted waters. To gather the tubers, use your hands or feet to follow the rhizomes that extend out from the center of the plant’s roots in the mud and water. Remove the tuber growing at the end of each rhizome. Scrub the tubers clean and them boil them in salted water for 15 minutes. Though the skin is edible arrowhead tubers are more palatable when peeled. The best times for collecting tubers is in fall or early spring.
A number of tribes are known to have used the arrowhead plant for medicinal purposes. The Navajo used the arrowhead plant to treat headaches, the Ojibwa ate the corms (tubers) for indigestion, and the Algonquin of Quebec used the root to treat tuberculosis.
