Sagittaria australis
Origin: North Carolina
Improvement status: Wild
Seeds per packet: ~50
BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED
Life cycle: Perennial
Also called long-beaked arrowhead or southern arrowhead, this species is less widespread and well-known than its cousin broadleaf arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia, the common wapato or duck-potato), but it is equally edible, nutritious, and delicious. This species has a smaller range, roughly from New York to Florida in the east, and southern Illinois to Louisiana in the west, while broadleaf arrowhead is found across the continent Non-botanists might even have a hard time telling the species apart — i.e. broadleaf has a three-sided petiole, or leaf stalk, while Appalachian has a five-sided petiole; the floral bracts on broadleaf are short (4-12 mm) and boat-shaped, while the floral bracts on Appalachian are longer (10-30mm) and not boat-shaped! — but that doesn't mean this species should be overlooked. In fact, with its narrower range, it's probably more important to grow and spread this species, which like many aquatic native plants is threatened by habitat loss, pollution, and invasive species like Trapa natans (water caltrop), Phragmites australis (common reed), and Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife).
The edible tubers of Appalachian arrowhead are quite similar to broadleaf arrowhead, commonly known as wapato, and can be used in exactly the same ways (roasted, boiled, fried, mashed, etc). They even float the same way once dislodged, making harvest easier. Some people might call this species "Appalachian wapato," but "wapato" is the Chinook name for broadleaf arrowhead, and the Chinook homeland is thousands of miles from this species' range. It would be more appropriate to call it "Appalachian katniss," after the Lenape word for duck-potato, as at least some of the range is Lenape land. But of course the range includes the homelands of many Indigenous peoples, each of whom had (or still have) their own word for the plant. Whatever it was called, it's likely that peoples across its range consumed it historically, because it is one of the best natural sources of carbohydrates available in the region.
We're really excited to be able to offer these seeds — which are not at all easy to come by — thanks to our friend Tyler Neitzey, whom Nate got to know because Tyler was a member of the first student cohort of the Ira Wallace Seed School, a project of Ujaama Cooperative Farming Alliance, where Nate is an instructor. Tyler harvested these seeds in North Carolina.
GROWING TIPS: If you have access to a pond or other body of water that is slow moving and has muddy banks, your best bet is probably just to sprinkle seeds around the edge in a few places, allowing nature to take its course. Sagittaria seeds have a hard inner coat that delays germination until it becomes cracked or decayed — and the seeds are so small that it's not practical to nick them or crack them open yourself. Only time can achieve that, so it might take weeks or months (or even a year or two) for seeds to germinate. But it's also been documented that seeds can sprout quite quickly too, so you never know. The seeds do want a saturated substrate, so if you're trying to germinate them outside of a natural water feature, you will still want to keep them very wet. They will likely want some exposure to light too, and an appropriate temperature range (around 70°F) with roughly 12 hours of darkness and 12 hours of light each day. A period of cold-moist stratification (such as in a fridge) probably helps too. Seeds planted too deeply will not germinate, but can last for a long time in such conditions and will sprout when the conditions are just right.
NOTE: Image of flowers with leaf behind it comes from iNaturalist.org user Melissa McMasters and is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Image of ripening seeds comes from user dominic and is shared under the same license. Close-up of flowers with insects image comes from Judy Gallagher and is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Drawing is public domain. The image of the tubers is also public domain, and is likely a different species in the same genus.
