Arrowhead, Sagittaria sagittifolia
Our native arrowhead grows best in water between 30 and 60cm deep, but also succeeds in wet soil. Other, Oriental species can also be grown, but they require a 6month growing season and a hot summer to do well.
The root is used cooked. Excellent when roasted, the taste is somewhat like potatoes. The tubers are starchy with a distinct flavour. The skin is rather bitter and is best removed after the tubers have been cooked.
Tubers can also be dried and ground into a powder, this powder can be used as a gruel etc or be added to cereal flours and used in making bread.
The roots (tubers really) are borne on the ends of slender roots, often 30cm deep in the soil and some distance from the parent plant. The tubers of wild plants are about 15cm in diameter and are best harvested in the late summer as the leaves die down.
The dried root contains (per 100g) 364 calories, 17g protein, 1g fat, 76.2g carbohydrate, 3.1g fibre, 5.8g ash, 44mg calcium, 561 mg phosphorus, 8.8mg iron, 2,480mg potassium, 0.54mg thiamine, 0.14mg riboflavin, 4.76mg niacin and 17 mg ascorbic acid. They contain no carotene.
The leaves and young stems can be eaten cooked. Somewhat acrid.