'Mahicannittuk' Katniss (Wapato or Duck Potato)

Sagittaria latifolia Origin: Mahicannittuck (Hudson River), New York Improvement status: Wild Seeds per packet: ~30 BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED Life cycle: Perennial Katniss is a beautiful aquatic perennial vegetable long eaten by Indigenous peoples from what's now called Canada south to Ecuador. Cousins of the plant are eaten around the world. The late summer buds and young fruits are also edible, but its the large underwater tubers that are most widely consumed. "Katniss" is the Lenape name — used by the original inhabitants of the region where this seed was foraged — but the Chinook name "wapato" is more commonly used, especially in and around the Chinook homeland in what we call the Pacific Northwest today. Other names include "duck potato" (though ducks pretty much only eat the seeds) and "broadleaf arrowhead." Our seed was foraged by EFN co-founder Nate Kleinman in a marsh on the edge of the Mahicannittuk ("river that flowers both ways" or "waters that are never sti