Duck Potato Anyone?

Sagittarius lancifolia

If you saw this spectacularly delicate flower at a flower shop, you might pause and wonder what sort of orchid it is. But you won’t see it in a shop, and it's not an orchid. Growing 3 feet high, it has incredibly beautiful, showy white flowers arranged in a whorled raceme, growing on stems that shoot high above sword-shaped leaves. Spent flowers become balls the size of marbles. In fact, it is everywhere around Baldwin County, and throughout much of the United States. Once you identify this plant, you’ll notice it in ditches, marshes, swamps, and along the shores of lakes and streams — and in Graham Creek Nature Preserve.

This plant is a Sagittarius lancifolia, the largest of the arrowhead family of plants. AKA Duck-potato, Duck-root, wapato, Bulltongue Arrowhead, and lancelet Arrowhead.

It’s name Duck-potato has origins in Native American history, as it is a source of food. “Duck”, because it grows in wetlands and ducks eat it, and “potato”, because it has roots that are called “water potatoes.” Native Americans would harvest these tubers, usually in the fall, using a curved root digger. In fact, the plant is a food source for many animals. The seeds are eaten by songbirds, waterfowl and wading birds, and the tubers are eaten by beavers and muskrats. The emergent foliage provides cover for these animals as well as fish and aquatic insects.

The name bulltongue simply came about because of people noticing that cattle especially liked eating this plant. In addition to being a food source, this plant is beneficial because it helps to reduce erosion and turbidity in our local waters.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittaria_lancifolia

Sqigwts Ha'chsetq'it *Water Potato Day*

www.webpages.uidaho.edu › ~rfrey › PDF › Water Potato