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Maranta and Sagittaria species
Description
The arrowroot is an aquatic plant with arrow-shaped leaves and potato like tubers in the mud.
Habitat and Distribution
Arrowroot is found worldwide in temperate zones and the tropics.
It is found in moist to wet habitats, sometimes in slow moving streams, lakes or ponds.
Edible Parts
The rootstock is a rich source of high quality starch. Boil the rootstock and eat it as a vegetable.
Steve's notes:
There are many species that have the name arrowroot. It is probably best to leave this one alone until you identify it with a good guide in hand. It is also usually a tough job to dig these roots out of the muck.
There are some species of arrowroot that have tubers which float. The procedure for getting at these used to be wiggling your toes in the muck to break them loose, so they would float to the surface, where you could easily scoop them up.
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