Polynesian Arrowroot (Tacca leontopetaloides)

Family: Taccaceae | Edibility: Choice Edible (4/5)

Tacca leontopetaloides, otherwise known as Polynesian Arrowroot, is a flowering plant native to tropical Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, northern Australia, New Guinea, Samoa, Micronesia, and Fiji. It is perennial, with a single stem around 1 m in height from a tuberous rootstock. The leaves are large and the flowers are in greenish-purple clusters, with long trailing bracts. The tubers are hard, brown on the outside but white on the inside.

Edible Parts & Harvest Seasons

Edible Parts: Roots/Tubers

Harvest Seasons: Early Summer, Fall, Late Summer, Spring, Winter

Flavor & Culinary Uses

rich source of starch. — The root is a rich source of starch.; It can be eaten raw or roasted, or the starch can be extracted.; The tubers have eyes, a pale-yellow skin and dull-whitish flesh, and are usually bitter and almost inedible when raw.; The starch, called Tahiti (or Fiji) arrowroot, is easy to extract and is used in breads or soups, it can be mixed with papayas, bananas and pumpkins, flavoured with vanilla and lemon, and cooked into poi.

Habitat & North American Range

Secondary forest and thickets, and many open situations, clearings, grassland, savannah, coconut groves, and beach vegetation (Barringtonia formation), not shunning seasonally dry areas, such as teak and eucalypt woodland. (Zone 8)