Chinese Arrowhead, See Goo, Cultivated Sagittaria

[utopiate]

It's Chinese Newyear, and these tubers are supposed to show up in Asian Groceries and Oriental Markets now as a traditional food for the holidays. They make great chips and other tasty dishes it seems. See Goo, Kuwai, Ci gu, Nga Ku, (spelled variously), grown in China, Japan, Korea. I read there are three cultivars in Japan, two coming via China. Grown for hundreds of years, the cultivated Chinese arrowhead is much larger in its tubers than our native American arrowheads, and grows somewhat differently. Sagittaria Trifolia var. edulis, Sagittaria Trifolia var. sinensis, S. Sagittifolia var. sinensis, the classification is somewhat variable also.

www.foc.org/china/mss/volume23/Alismatales-AGH_reviewing.htm

Tuber size figures in there are 5-10 x 4-6 cm... thats huge for a wapato. I read that they are grown in Vancouver B.C. in outdoor mini-marsh bathtubs, and are found in the markets now.

If anyone is seeing these in the Asian stores and markets I'd sure like to try some and grow some also.

Some pictures I found:

eatingasia.typepad.com/eatingasia/2007/02/duck_potatoes_f.html

kimchie.wordpress.com/2007/12/26/nga-ku-chips/


Yes, Sagittaria can be invasive. But I get the impression that its the wild species usually, and American forms in particular, that have invaded many other countries of the world. Let me know if you are familiar with these cultivated forms please.

[orflo]

I bought some sagittaria in an Asian shop once, and planted it in a big bucket, but it didn't even start growing, I don't know if they radiate these as well...
But it is a promising crop, even for our northern latitudes ...

[utopiate]

Yes I suppose they do irradiate them. Some photos I saw of market tubers had some viable looking green life in the tips. A lot of Malaysian Chinese seem to like their imported ones and I see on their blog pics that some of them are viable, while others don't look good. I also keep running into statements that they are grown in the San Francisco area to supply the oriental markets, but I cant figure out if they are growing the Asian cultivars or adapted native S. latifolia. I suppose they brought in their old cultivars to propagate . Anyone down there that can locate these?

[stevil]

I can't help much - have never seen any of these and none are listed in the RHS Plant Finder (plants available from UK nurseries).

Here is the list:
www.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantfinder/plantfinder2.asp?crit=sagittaria&Genus=Sagittaria

I was given Wapato (S. cuneata) by Eilif Aas a few years ago and I had also at about the same time planted native Sagittaria sagittifolia in my small pond. Both flowered the following year. However, I couldn't see any difference between them, but didn't have a key, so didn't really know what I was looking for.
That autumn, I couldn't find any tubers - admittedly, the pond was overgrown which didn't help and I didn't get in and feel about and harvest with my toes which is, I understand, the correct harvesting procedure .

Nevertheless, they've come back ever since, but I haven't found any size of tuber, but that could be due to my cool climate. I'm also not sure if I still have both of them and the plants only rarely flower now. They have also spread out and pop up everywhere.

[stevil]

Jan 26, 2009 23:39:39 GMT -5 utopiate said:

I read that they are grown in Vancouver B.C. in outdoor mini-marsh bathtubs, and are found in the markets now.

This is mentioned in Joy Larkcom's Oriental Vegetables (1991).

[utopiate]

I grew some S. cuneata last season in a greenhouse tub. Transplanted them a bit late from a local lake. The plants were only about half the size of the S. latifolia I grew once... from the Columbia River gorge. That was a very tall robust form. The cuneata tubers I got were small but tasty and non-bitter even raw. I'm still fishing some out of the mud ( I brought the tub in to thaw). Now they taste muddy, but I'm sprouting some to see if they will grow less aquatically.

[utopiate]

Sagittaria cuneata, a Native American Arrowhead
[img src="http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/3429/sagittariacuneatatubersgg4.jpg"
By utopiate, shot with Canon PowerShot A700 at 2009-01-31][/img]
Some small ones I grew in a tub. Very tasty and nice texture. Will examine the native grown ones for size and quality after the ice thaws.

[alkapuler]

For a plant that was a widespread foodplant in the PNW and across temperate USA and Canada, these Sagittarias certain have become obscure. Part of that is in the development of a breeding system. Japanese high school kids figured out that GA3 will stimulate seed germination, moving it from 2 years to several weeks. It also affects male flowers turning them female. So one can generate female plants and look for interspecies crosses like S. latifolia x S. cuneata ie one with bigger tubers with one with superior flavor.

[utopiate]

Alkapuler, hi, I've been reading about that Japanese research trying to breed and improve Sagittaria. I'd like to try some of it myself with our American species as you suggest, and in fact that was in mind when I started the thread. I guess being a wetlands plant they are at a big disadvantage in being useful as a crop, but they certainly deserve some effort simply based upon their own merits, flavor, and uniqueness. I found most interesting the research on crossing of the Chinese cultivated forms with each other and a native Japanese form. Did you read that paper about the progeny characteristics? The crosses all seemed to work just fine, with resultant tuber sizes and qualities intermediate between the parents. The Chinese cultivars don't seem to flower much if at all, but the GA3 induced flowering in them.

I should be getting some of the Chinese Nga Ku (See Gu) tomorrow. I expect they will prove to be irradiated or non-viable, but still interesting to sample. If by chance they are viable, I will try breeding them with S. cuneata and S. latifolia.

[utopiate]

The Cultivated Chinese Sagittaria. These things are excellant eating!

[img src="http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/7369/cultivatedarrowheadsa8.jpg"
By utopiate, shot with Canon PowerShot A700 at 2009-02-02][/img]
[im
By utopiate, shot with Canon PowerShot A700 at 2009-02-02g][/img]

I believe this must be the cultivar described here.

Sagittaria trifolia var. sinensis (Sims) Makino, Ill. Fl. Nipp. 886. Pl. 1940.
HUA XIA CI GU
Sagittaria sinensis Sims, Bot. Mag. (Curtis) 39: t. 1631. 1814; S. sagittifolia Linnaeus f. sinensis (Sims) Makino.
Tubers 5 to 10 cm X 4 to 6 cm. Leaves large, midlobe broadly ovate, apex obtuse. Inflorescences with 3 whorls of branches at base, each whorl 3- or more branched.
Cultivated south of the Yangtze River: Anhui, Fujian Guizhou, Hainan, Henan, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Also cultivated in Japan and Korea].

The provinces and geographical description of its range of cultivation center about on 27 degrees north latitude, extending to around 33 degrees north. The southernmost portions of its range (Hainan) are tropical, but generally this is a subtropical region of cultivation. The northernmost portions of its range are comparable in latitude to the southern USA.

Its edible qualities surprised me. It is very good. I was expecting a slight bitterness but there is none, even in the peel. The peelings are very thin and come off easy with a carrot peeler. Inside it is crisp and starchy. I ate some raw, but they are meant to be cooked. It was mild and starchy raw with no bad flavor, something like a raw potato. Boiled they were excellant, with a nice flavor of wapato, not too mild, nor too strong, just right. There was a slight grainyness that was actually good, with slightly sweet rich flavor. Texture was also very good, starchy but somewhat more firm than potatoes. How do I describe the flavor or sagittaria...its different than potato. I found it distinct and very appealing.

I think that I found where the references to a slight bitterness come from. They Malaysian Chinese are wild about these sliced thin and deepfried as chips for Chinese Newyear. They call the plant and chips Nga Ku. I fried up an approximation of these chips and found that when well browned like that as chips there is a slight bitterness much as if you fried garlic a bit too long. It must be activated by the carmelization process. Boiled there was no trace of this bitter principle and flavor was superb.

[orflo]

These are big, way bigger than the ones I occasionally find here. Seeing the latitudes it's grown at,I'm fully aware that Belgian conditions will limit similar sagittarias.
But after all, tomatoes , potatoes , peppers, squash,... were grown originally in more equatorial latitudes (well, up to about 35° North for some) and these were quickly converted to something growing further up north (or south).

[canadamike]

I never got around eating these ones, even knowing they were edible. There are tons of them around here in the river, but this river was so contaminated by industry pollutants I never got around eating any. That's the case with most cattails too, unfortunately, but I now have a spot I found last summer were I am confident I will not become a mutant if I eat any...

[utopiate]

I'm wondering what the Japanese and Korean forms are like. Actually I have been reading about the Japanese cultivars of which there are apparently three (two derived from the Chinese arrowhead and one thought to be from a native Japanese arrowhead). These must be more northerly adapted forms. Aokuwai, and Shirokuwai are the Japanese cultivars from Chinese introductions. Shirokuwai is supposed to be the best yielding and biggest by far, but the pictures and tuber sizes I find for it are much smaller than these Chinese ones that I have. I wonder if they developed a new polyploid in China, or if the Japanese ones just adapted to a more Northern climate. Maybe the ones you saw in shops were Japanese in origin.

There is a photo in Perennial Vegetables by Eric Tonsmeier, pg 78, (Sagittaria) that shows what I believe is probably Shirokuwai. Large, but slightly flattened, somewhat oblong, light colored with dark scales. This is quite different than the Chinese form I show above, and not as large but still respectable.

There is also some confusion over these names. If S. trifolia edulis (var. sinensis) is also S. sagittifolia var. sinensis... then the wild S. sagittifolia is probably what they come from and that is, I think, a northerly ranging species which has invaded the USA and Canada even. Presumably it could breed to this huge Chinese version and produce northern adapted forms. I am wondering if the Chinese arrowhead can cross with American species also.

Oh yeah, I think Sagittaria is particularly noted for concentrating heavy metals.

[stevil]

Steve: Thanks for posting those whoppers! Did you get them from a Chinese market or something?


This Swedish site has distribution maps and shows the ranges of sagittifolia and trifolia ranges
linnaeus.nrm.se/flora/mono/alismata/sagit/sagisagv.jpg

Is sagittifolia so widespread in the US or it this a different species that used to be sagittifolia.

Anyway, sagittifolia's range is right up into the arctic in Sweden, but has an easterly distribution in Scandinavia, not found in my area.

[utopiate]

Yes those came in the mail from a popular big city oriental market here. It sounds like they are often only found during Chinese Newyear, so I'm glad that I got interested in them in time to order some.

Wow, great map. Well i need to re-read the stuff in my file, cuz there were name changes and various species at different times. At one time I believe S. saggitfolia was thought to be the same as S. latifolia, maybe still are with some botanists, but as different species I wonder if your map showing range in western usa is for S. latifolia when it was thought to be sagittifolia, or if its the actual sagittifolia as it has invaded. Also S. graminea has been confused or thought of as synonymous with Chinese arrowhead at times (as on Pfaf for this species). Is there a map for S. latifolia?

As far as I can sort it offhand...the S. sagittifolia is the Hawiian arrowhead in terms of US invasives. Probabably introduced by Asians there.. but I wonder if it was the cultivated one therefore or the wild sagittifolia. But the graminea (grassy arrowhead) is listed as a serious invasive also. I think its a us native though. Am looking it up.

I guess the questions are is S. sagittifolia also S. trifolia? And is S. sagittifolia also S. latifolia? And if or if not, which have invaded where and which are interfertile.