ARROWHEAD (Wapato. Duck Potato) 



Sagittaria latifolia Willd. 



Summer It is midsummer in the marshes. The cattails are 



Swamps, ponds tall and are full of heavy brown seed-heads. Mallows 



blossom along- the shores, smartweed is bright pink, 

 the arrowheads are in bloom. Their plants fill the shallows and stand on 

 the muddy shore. They may live at the water's edge or stand with the 

 stems half submerged. And down in the mud is the thick white root- 

 stock which the Indians knew as something edible, a starchy tuber they 

 called Wapato or duck potato. This the women went out "to gather in 

 late summer and autumn when the starch \\'as ^veW stored in the roots. 

 The women went into the muddy shallows and gTu])bed about with their 

 toes and hands to uproot the "potatoes", and gathered them in when they 

 floated. They were grated to make cakes or were roasted in hot ashes. 



The leaves of arrowhead are so distinctive they are never mistaken 

 for anything else. They are largo, iliin, veiny, in the shape of a large 

 arrowhead or spearhead. There are many variations in Sagittaria — nar- 

 row little leaves without the flanges, tiny, naii'ow ai row-shaped leaves, 

 very broad leaves, some with short flanges or long flanges. Sagitiaria 

 latifolm. however, is the tyi)ical ])lant of the family ami i- tlie one fi>nn(l 

 most commonly in Jllinois ponds and swamps. 



In July and August the arrowheads send up stout, ])ithy flower 

 stalks set with round green buds arniiigcd in thi'cn's in tiers up the stem. 

 The buds open, and sparkling white flowers with three crinkled snowy 

 petals glisten in the sun. They are arranged around the tight heads of 

 green carpels or yellow stamens in a ball-like or somewhat flattened 

 center. 



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