Southern Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Peltandra virginica (L.) Kunth
- Family: Aroid (Araceae)
- Flowering: May-June
- Field Marks: This species is readily recognized by its arrowhead-shaped leaves that are pinnately veined and by its flowers borne on a spadix that is surrounded by a spathe.
- Habitat: Wet ground, swamps, sloughs, oxbow lakes, river bottoms, marshes, margins of ponds, along slow streams, and other open or shaded wet soil sites.
- Habit: Perennial herb with a thick, perpendicular root.
- Stems: No aerial stems present.
- Leaves: All basal, arrowhead-shaped, with a pair of spreading lobes at the base, pinnately veined, pointed at the tip, smooth, up to 12 inches long at flowering time, then becoming larger.
- Flowers: Crowded on a fleshy stalk (spadix), surrounded by a cylindrical green sheath (spathe) up to 8 inches long; male flowers crowded along the upper part of the spadix; female flowers crowded near the bottom of the spadix.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 4-5.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Fruits: Berries greenish to brown, up to 1/2 inch long, in a fleshy, club-shaped structure, turning black after falling into water.
- Notes: The roots reputedly can be boiled and eaten as a potato-like vegetable.
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