Wapato

Wapato (Sagittaria latifolia), also known as Duck Potato, Indian Potato, or Broadleaf Arrowhead, is a striking aquatic native — bold arrowhead-shaped leaves and white three-petaled flowers rising from pond and marsh — that produces a beloved, potato-like edible tuber.^2, 4

Edible & Medicinal Uses

Wapato's walnut-to-egg-sized tubers form at the ends of underwater runners and are prepared just like potatoes — boiled, roasted, mashed, or fried, and even dried and ground into flour. Cooked, their smooth, faintly orange flesh tastes somewhere between a sweet potato and a yam, with notes of sweet chestnut (cooking removes a slight raw bitterness). Wapato is a cornerstone food and major trade item of Northwest Coast and Columbia River peoples — the Chinook name wapato named the plant, and the bread-cake made from it is called chaplil.^1, 4

Ornamental Qualities

Handsome and architectural, Wapato brings glossy, tropical-looking arrowhead leaves 1–2 ft tall and airy whorls of white flowers to a pond edge, rain garden, ditch, or half-barrel water garden. It's a superb plant for cleaning and greening wet spots, and a magnet for bumblebees, waterfowl, and dragonflies.¹

Environment & Culture

Ecology: Found in shallow wetlands across North America, Wapato grows in ponds, slow streams, marshes, and saturated soils, spreading into large, productive colonies (a single healthy plant can yield dozens of tubers in a season). Its tubers feed ducks and muskrats (hence "duck potato"), and its flowers feed bumblebees.^1, 2

Culture: Among the most important root foods of the lower Columbia and Northwest Coast, wapato is harvested (often by women wading and freeing the floating tubers with their feet), eaten, stored, and traded widely. We offer it with respect for that living knowledge and invite support for Indigenous-led restoration through our Charitable Giving page.⁴

In the Kitchen

Harvest tubers in fall as the plant goes dormant — in a tub or pond, loosen the mud and let them float up to collect. Treat them exactly like small potatoes: boil then bake with a little butter and garlic, roast, mash, or fry. Always cook them (never raw); the flavor is nutty, starchy, and mildly sweet.⁵ (Growing and harvest details are on the Planting Guide tab.)

Attributes

• Native Range: Shallow wetlands across North America¹
• USDA Zones: ~4–10³
• Light: Full sun¹
• Water: Aquatic — shallow standing water to saturated mud¹
• Soil: Soft, mucky, loamy or clay bottoms (not sandy)¹
• Habit: Aquatic perennial, 1–2 ft leaves; spreads into colonies²
• Edible: Tubers (cooked) — prepared like potatoes⁴

References

1. CalScape; Northwest Meadowscapes, Sagittaria latifolia.
2. Pojar, J. & MacKinnon, A., Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, 2014.
3. USDA PLANTS Database, Sagittaria latifolia.
4. Archaeology Roadshow, "Wapato for the People"; Lewis & Clark journals.
5. "Foraging and Cooking Wapato," Forager Chef.

Pot Sizing Guide