PlantFiles: Broadleaf Arrowhead, Duck Potato, Wapato
Sagittaria latifolia

Here in Minnesota they tend to be uncommon in the wild, preferring undisturbed habitation as they tend to lose competition with cattails and becoming more common the further south you go but I have seen them in certain roadside ditches where mowing have keep populations of cattails down before they have spread.
In garden experience, they do well in a gallon pot kept overwinted in the pond. The plants that I have had a strange habit of going dormant early, about early September - when this first happen the first two years, I thought they had died as they tend to be late into coming up compare to the other water plants I have and on one occident I was about to throw them away spring 2007 when I felt the roots and shoots and find that they were still healthy.

The tubers can be gathered in quantity by freeing them from the mud with a hoe or rake and collecting them as they float to the surface. The tubers are delicious when cooked as you would potatoes.

The rhizomes produce starchy tubers when grown in mud and was once an important food source for Native Americans.

The flower clusters are white and can rise 3' or more above the water.

The genus name sagitta is Latin for 'arrow' , refering to the shape of the leaves.

The leaves have long petioles and arrowhead shaped leaf blades to 10 inches long. Submerged leaves are lance-shaped or even bladeless. The ½ to 1 inch wide 3 petaled white flowers appear in late spring and summer. This is the most common arrowhead of eastern North America. It grows at low elevations in shallow water on the fringe of ponds, lakes, streams and wet ditches. Also called Also called Duck Potato or Wapato because of its edible egg-shaped rhizomes.

Arrowhead is native to North America and common in shallow water. It is a vigorous spreader, so if you grow it in a pond, it's better to keep it in a pot! Arrowheads grow tubers on their roots that are edible. Native Americans used to harvest them in the fall by digging in the mud with their toes. The tubers I tried were about an inch or two across and tasty when steamed, though bitter if not fully cooked. I have grown this in a 3 foot tub, in 6-12" of water and it was very easy and pretty.