Sagittaria latifolia is a plant found in shallow wetlands and is sometimes known as broadleaf arrowhead, duck-potato, Indian potato, katniss, or wapato. This plant produces edible tubers that have traditionally been extensively used by Native Americans. Description Sagittaria latifolia is a variably sized perennial, ranging from in length and growing in colonies that can cover large areas of ground. The roots are white and thin, with the green and white mother plant producing white tubers ranging from long and deep, covered with a purplish skin. The plant produces rosettes of leaves and an inflorescence on a long rigid scape. The leaves are extremely variable, from in length and thin to wedge-shaped like those of S. cuneata. Spongy and solid, the leaves have parallel venation meeting in the middle and the extremities. The inflorescence is a raceme about above water and composed of white flowers whorled by threes, blooming from July to September. The flowers are about wide and usually divided into female on the lower part and male on the upper of the plant, although some specimens are dioecious. The flowers have three round, white petals and three very short curved, dark green sepals. Flower sex is easy to determine due to the dissimilarity between the 25 to 50 yellow stamens of the male and the sphere of green carpels of the female ones. Distribution and habitat Sagittaria latifolia is native to southern Canada and most of the contiguous United States, as well as Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Cuba. It is also naturalized in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Bhutan, Australia and much of Europe (France, Spain, Italy, Romania, Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and European Russia). In Mexico, it is reported from Campeche, Nayarit, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Puebla, Jalisco, Durango, Tlaxcala, Estado de México, Veracruz and Michoacán. It can be found in wet areas such as ponds and swamps. Ecology Extremely frequent as an emergent plant, broadleaf arrowhead forms dense colonies on very wet soils that become more open as the species mixes with other species of deeper water levels. These colonies form long bands following the curves of rivers, ponds and lakes, well-marked by the dark green color of the leaves. The plant has strong roots and can survive through wide variations of the water level, slow currents and waves. It displays an affinity for high levels of phosphates and hard waters. Despite the name "duck potato", ducks