Arumleaf Arrowhead
Arumleaf arrowhead (Sagittaria cuneata) is an aquatic perennial, growing in slow-moving water. It is a flowering plant in the water plantain family.
- Starchy tubers from rhizomes root in the silts and muddy bottoms of ponds and shallow bays of lakes.
- The below-the-surface plant looks quite different to what we see on and above the surface.
- Stems and lanceolate leaves below the water grow to the surface, then arrowhead leaves float on the water.
- The inflorescence is a raceme with several whorls of flowers. The plant bears both female (lower) and male (higher) white flowers with yellow stamens.
- Plants are quite variable.
- All photos by the author. Click an image for a lightbox view and a caption.
- Numerous achenes form in clusters after flowering.
- Indigenous people collected, stored, and ate the tubers.
- Beavers and muskrats harvest the tubers and store them for the winter months.
- A related species is wapato (Sagittaria latifolia), which is larger.
- I encounter this species each summer while paddling shallow bays in some of our area’s lakes.