Medicinal Monday - Delicious and Useful... Duck Potatoes

Potatoes are tubers... and normally we don't think of them as aquatic. But... there is a very popular potato eaten and used medically by Native American communities throughout the United States.  Known scientifically as Sagittaria latifolia willd this plant is commonly called the duck potato or arrowhead and is enjoyed in many ways.  

About Duck Potatoes

Sagittaria latifolia willd is a member of the Water Plantain Family. This plant can be found in shallow wetlands and is a colony-forming aquatic perennial that rises about water level to a height of about three feet. These colonies can form long bands that follow the curves of rivers, ponds, and lakes. They have very strong roots that can survive a variety of water levels and currents.  The plant reproduces by rhizomes that produce starchy purple tubers that were thought to be eaten by ducks, giving them another common name, duck potatoes. The plant produces a circular arrangement of leaves on a cluster of flowers on the main branch. The flowers are showy with three round white petals that are arranged in a whorled raceme. The flowers are male and female and can easily be distinguished by the number of stamens of the male and the dark green carpels of the female. Duck Potatoes can be found in most of the United States including Connecticut. The leaves are long and shaped like arrowheads, giving them another one of their common names.  

Medicinal and Culinary Uses of Duck Potatoes

This plant was once an important food source for many Native American communities as well as for medicinal treatments. The Cree called it "Wapato" and some Native American communities in California called these plants wappate or wapatoo.  In terms of medicinal uses, the Cherokee used the leaves to give a baby with a fever a bath and would make an infusion of the leaves to treat fever. The Chippewa used an infusion of the roots to treat indigestion. The Iroquois made an infusion of the plant and took it to treat rheumatism. They also made a compound decoction to treat constipation and boils around the stomachs of children The Potawatomi would take the starchy corms and pound them into a pulp and use it to treat wounds and sores. 

The Chippewa would boil or dry the end of the roots or the "potatoes" and use them for food. The Cocopa would peel then bake the roots and eat them mashed; they also used them in gambling games. The Dakota, Omaha, Pawnee, Pomo, Thompson, Winnebago, and Klamath would roast the tubers and eat them as food. The Meskwaki would boil and slice the tubers and string them on a piece of basswood and hang them to use as a winter supply of food. The Potawatomi made a dish of duck potatoes, deer meat, and maple sugar; they also strung the boiled sliced potatoes for storage and winter use.

Did You Know...

The genus name comes from sagitta, Latin for the word arrow in reference to the shape of the leaves. 

Even though one of the common names of this plant is duck potato, ducks rarely eat the tubers because, most of the time, they can't reach them. 

Beavers, North American Porcupines, and muskrats eat the entire plant including the tubers. 

Documentation has it that Native Americans have opened muskrat houses to obtain their collection of tubers.