Wapato (arrowhead) (Sagittaria latifolia)

Photo by Tom Scavo on iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0

RootIn season now (October)

Wapato (arrowhead)

Sagittaria latifolia

When: Typically September – November — September, October, November. Earlier in the south, later in the north.
Where it grows: Shallow still or slow water and mud — marsh edges, pond margins, sloughs, river backwaters and ditches — across the continent.
How to know it: Arrow-shaped leaves with two long basal lobes pointing backward and veins that radiate from where the stalk joins the blade; white three-petalled flowers in whorls of three on a separate leafless stalk, July–September. The tubers sit at the ends of long runners in the mud, up to 1 m (3 ft) from the plant.
Look-alikes: Arrow arum (Peltandra virginica) grows in the same mud with a similar arrow-shaped leaf, but it has one strong midvein with side veins running out to the edge, a green hooded spathe instead of white flowers, and a drooping cluster of green-brown berries; its root and berries are loaded with calcium oxalate and burn the mouth. Pickerelweed has heart-shaped leaves with many fine parallel veins and a blue-violet flower spike.
Harvest and use: Tubers dug or trodden loose in fall once the leaves yellow — the traditional way is to wade in and work them free with your feet so they float. Always cooked: roasted, boiled or baked like a small potato with a chestnut note. A culturally important Indigenous food; take little, from big stands, and never from a bed someone else tends.
Caution: Wapato is a sacred and historic staple of the Katzie and other Coast Salish peoples of the lower Fraser and of the Chinookan peoples of the lower Columbia, and communities are restoring their beds — respect them. Many wetlands are inside parks, refuges and conservation areas where digging is prohibited; check first and harvest only from clean water.

Wapato (arrowhead) at a glance

Also called: Broadleaf arrowhead, duck potato, Indian potato, katniss, sagittaire (Quebec); sqewth in Halkomelem. ‘Wapato’ is the Chinook Jargon name. Other arrowheads (Sagittaria cuneata, S. rigida and relatives) make smaller tubers and are eaten the same way.
Family: Alismataceae, the water-plantain family.
Where it grows: Native in every province from British Columbia to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and in nearly every state — the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence, New England, the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains, Florida, the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, the prairie potholes, and the lower Fraser, Columbia and Willamette in the Pacific Northwest. It is scarce in the dry interior west and the deserts except along rivers.
When to pick: Fall, once the leaves yellow and collapse — September to November in most of the range, and on the mild Pacific coast the Katzie dug it from October right through February. The tubers are at their largest then; by late spring the plant has drawn them down to grow. Work when the water is low and the mud is soft.
Parts used: The tubers, 2–5 cm (1–2 in), formed at the tips of runners up to 1 m (3 ft) from the plant. Always cooked — roasted in ashes the traditional way, or boiled, baked or fried — and peeled after cooking, when the skin slips off. Raw they are bitter and unpleasant. The leaves and flowers are not eaten.
Is any of it poisonous?: Wapato itself has nothing worse than a bitter raw tuber. The hazard is its neighbours: arrow arum (Peltandra virginica) and wild calla (Calla palustris), both arums whose roots and berries are packed with needle-like calcium oxalate crystals that cause instant burning and swelling of the mouth and throat; Indigenous cooks who used arrow arum dried or cooked it for hours first. Tubers felt out blind in the mud can come from any plant on that bank, so dig only under arrowhead leaves you have identified, and keep arum roots out of the basket.
More look-alikes to know: Wild calla (Calla palustris): heart-shaped rather than arrow-shaped leaves, a white spathe and a head of red berries, in northern bogs; calcium oxalate. Water plantain (Alisma): oval leaves with no backward lobes and tiny white three-petalled flowers in an open spray; its root is acrid raw and not a wapato substitute. Bur-reed (Sparganium): strap leaves and spiky round seed balls. Arrowhead leaves themselves vary enormously — narrow and grass-like in deep water, broad in mud — so look for the whorls of three white flowers and the backward-pointing lobes with veins fanning from the stalk.

Questions people ask about wapato

How do you tell wapato from arrow arum?

By the veins and the flowers. Arrowhead’s veins fan out from the point where the stalk meets the blade and run to the tips of the lobes; arrow arum has a strong single midvein with side veins running out toward a vein along the leaf edge. Arrowhead carries white three-petalled flowers in whorls of three; arrow arum has a green hooded spathe and a drooping cluster of green-brown berries. Arrow arum’s root burns the mouth with calcium oxalate — never eat it.

How do you harvest wapato?

The traditional way is to wade into the shallows in fall and work the mud with your feet until the tubers break free from their runners and float, then gather them from the surface — Lewis and Clark watched Chinookan women do it chest-deep from small canoes. A potato fork or rake works from the bank. Take a few from a big stand; the mud settles and the bed regrows.

Who traditionally harvested wapato?

It was a staple and trade good across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The Katzie First Nation of the Pitt River and lower Fraser tended wapato beds for thousands of years — a 3,800-year-old wapato garden with a rock-paved harvesting floor was excavated in Katzie territory at Pitt Meadows — and Chinookan peoples of the lower Columbia harvested it so heavily around Sauvie Island that Lewis and Clark called the place Wapato Island and the root ‘the most valuable of all their roots’. The Katzie are restoring their beds today.

Can you eat wapato raw?

No — raw tubers are bitter and acrid. Roast them in coals or bake, boil or fry them, then slip the skins off; cooked, they taste between a potato and a chestnut, slightly sweet. They store well in a cool, damp place.

Is it legal to dig wapato?

Often not where it grows best. Many wapato marshes lie inside national, provincial and state parks, wildlife refuges and conservation areas, where digging plants is prohibited, and private shorelines need the owner’s permission. Check the rules for the specific wetland, avoid waterfowl nesting season, and never dig a bed that an Indigenous community is tending or restoring.

Is wapato safe for children?

The cooked tubers are a good, mild food for children, and treading them out of the mud is a game. The risks are the water and the neighbours: cold deep mud, and arrow arum and wild calla, whose roots burn the mouth. Let children gather the floating tubers while an adult chooses the plants, and cook everything.

Found in these regions

Hardiness zones 3–10.

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Checked against these sources · last reviewed October 2026

Seasons are typical for the middle of the range and move by weeks north and south, and up and down hills.

Educational information only. Never eat a wild plant or mushroom identified from a single photograph or description — confirm with a regional field guide or an experienced forager, and know the poisonous species in your area first.

Wapato (arrowhead)

Sagittaria latifolia

When

Typically September – November — September, October, November. Earlier in the south, later in the north.

Where it grows

Shallow still or slow water and mud — marsh edges, pond margins, sloughs, river backwaters and ditches — across the continent.

How to know it

Arrow-shaped leaves with two long basal lobes pointing backward and veins that radiate from where the stalk joins the blade; white three-petalled flowers in whorls of three on a separate leafless stalk, July–September. The tubers sit at the ends of long runners in the mud, up to 1 m (3 ft) from the plant.

Look-alikes

Arrow arum (Peltandra virginica) grows in the same mud with a similar arrow-shaped leaf, but it has one strong midvein with side veins running out to the edge, a green hooded spathe instead of white flowers, and a drooping cluster of green-brown berries; its root and berries are loaded with calcium oxalate and burn the mouth. Pickerelweed has heart-shaped leaves with many fine parallel veins and a blue-violet flower spike.

Harvest and use

Tubers dug or trodden loose in fall once the leaves yellow — the traditional way is to wade in and work them free with your feet so they float. Always cooked: roasted, boiled or baked like a small potato with a chestnut note. A culturally important Indigenous food; take little, from big stands, and never from a bed someone else tends.

Caution

Wapato is a sacred and historic staple of the Katzie and other Coast Salish peoples of the lower Fraser and of the Chinookan peoples of the lower Columbia, and communities are restoring their beds — respect them. Many wetlands are inside parks, refuges and conservation areas where digging is prohibited; check first and harvest only from clean water.

Wapato (arrowhead) at a glance

Also called

Broadleaf arrowhead, duck potato, Indian potato, katniss, sagittaire (Quebec); sqewth in Halkomelem. ‘Wapato’ is the Chinook Jargon name. Other arrowheads (Sagittaria cuneata, S. rigida and relatives) make smaller tubers and are eaten the same way.

Family

Alismataceae, the water-plantain family.

Where it grows

Native in every province from British Columbia to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and in nearly every state — the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence, New England, the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains, Florida, the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, the prairie potholes, and the lower Fraser, Columbia and Willamette in the Pacific Northwest. It is scarce in the dry interior west and the deserts except along rivers.

When to pick

Fall, once the leaves yellow and collapse — September to November in most of the range, and on the mild Pacific coast the Katzie dug it from October right through February. The tubers are at their largest then; by late spring the plant has drawn them down to grow. Work when the water is low and the mud is soft.

Parts used

The tubers, 2–5 cm (1–2 in), formed at the tips of runners up to 1 m (3 ft) from the plant. Always cooked — roasted in ashes the traditional way, or boiled, baked or fried — and peeled after cooking, when the skin slips off. Raw they are bitter and unpleasant. The leaves and flowers are not eaten.

Is any of it poisonous?

Wapato itself has nothing worse than a bitter raw tuber. The hazard is its neighbours: arrow arum (Peltandra virginica) and wild calla (Calla palustris), both arums whose roots and berries are packed with needle-like calcium oxalate crystals that cause instant burning and swelling of the mouth and throat; Indigenous cooks who used arrow arum dried or cooked it for hours first. Tubers felt out blind in the mud can come from any plant on that bank, so dig only under arrowhead leaves you have identified, and keep arum roots out of the basket.

More look-alikes to know

Wild calla (Calla palustris): heart-shaped rather than arrow-shaped leaves, a white spathe and a head of red berries, in northern bogs; calcium oxalate. Water plantain (Alisma): oval leaves with no backward lobes and tiny white three-petalled flowers in an open spray; its root is acrid raw and not a wapato substitute. Bur-reed (Sparganium): strap leaves and spiky round seed balls. Arrowhead leaves themselves vary enormously — narrow and grass-like in deep water, broad in mud — so look for the whorls of three white flowers and the backward-pointing lobes with veins fanning from the stalk.

Wapato (arrowhead)

Wapato (arrowhead) at a glance