Wapato

I found these wapato (Indian potatoes), or duck potatoes on Big Brook in Big Lake last month. They're an edible, starchy tuber that is part of the Arrowhead plant. This was the first time I'd seen them uprooted like this for all the world to see. They looked fascinating.

Now that I know what the plant is, I realize there were obvious clues that I had overlooked, such as the striations on the roots. The entire plant was floating on the surface of the brook, obviously having been dug up and discarded (or forgotten) by whatever had foraged for them - ducks, muskrats, or beavers.

Indigenous people harvested and traded them. According to Natural Resources Conservation Service, "Indian women collected wapato in shallow water from a canoe, or waded into ponds or marshes in the late summer and loosened the roots with their toes. The roots would rise to the top of the water where they were gathered and tossed into floating baskets."