Tacca leontopetaloides (L.) Kuntze

Tuber depressed-globose or broadly ellipsoid, thin-skinned, smooth, 1.5-5 cm high by 1-8 by 0.5-4 cm, white when young, older dark grey to brown, white within, somewhat juicy, growing near the surface to up to 50 cm deep, provided with an apical cavity emitting the leaves and inflorescences; the tuber is replaced during the year by a new main tuber which arises from a downward-growing runner-like thick rhizome at a lower level and remains dormant after yearly death of aerial parts of the original plant. Base of the leaves and the inflorescence in young plants (mostly?) surrounded by a linear-lanceolate, special leaf (cataphyll) 8-21 by 1.2-3 cm. Leaves 1-3, broadly obovate, ovate, or oblong-ovate in outline, palmately 3-sect, each of the 3 segments pinnately lobed to dissected, up to 70 by 120 cm; lobes orbicular to linear; petiole hollow, 17-150 by 0.3-2.5 cm, sheath 2-25 by 0.6-3.5 cm. Inflorescences 1 or 2, 20-40-flowered; scape hollow, green, 20-170 by 0.2-2.5 cm. Involucral bracts of different size, large ones 4-9 (-12), mostly surrounding the scape, sometimes only on the ribbed side of the scape (in that case with up to 10 small bracts in the canaliculate zone), light to dark green, sometimes with fine purplish margin, 2 (-4) outer ones sessile, (ob)ovate, oblong, or lanceolate, 2.5-10 by 1.2-3.5 cm, with attenuate or cuneate base, acuminate at the apex, acumen entire or 2-3 dentate; 2-7 (-10) inner bracts more or less similar in shape to the outer ones, acuminate at the apex, curvinerved with pinnate side nerves, 2.5-10 by 0.7-5 cm; the small bracts linear lanceolate, sessile, with acute apex, 5-7 by 1-1.5 mm. Filiform bracts 20-40, up to 25 cm, (dark) purple or dark blackish-brown. Flowers 6-17 by 6-13 mm, drooping, light yellow, yellowish green or blackish purplish green; pedicel up to 6 cm by 1 mm (in fruit up to 8 cm by 2 mm); perianth tube 1.5-5 by 4-11 mm. Perianth lobes mostly fleshy with membranous margins, persistent, 3 outer ones elliptic or ovate (lanceolate), (1.5-) 4-7 by 2-3 mm, 3 inner ones (broadly) ovate or oblong ovate, 5-7.5 by 2.5-5 mm; apices obtuse or retuse, rarely truncate. Stamens white or dull yellow to brown or purple; adnate portion of the filaments 1-5 by 2-2.5 mm, free apical portion 1.5-2 by 1.5-2 mm, thecae up to 2 mm long. Ovary 2-5 by 2-4 mm; disk annular, ribbed, (always?) with numerous pellucid glandular hairs, 1.5-3 mm ø; style 1.5-3 by 0.5-1.5 mm, whitish to green; stigmatic lobes whitish to purple, 1.5-2 by 2-3 mm, sometimes their 2 apices emarginate. Fruit mostly globose, 1.5-2.5 cm ø, but sometimes ellipsoid or ovoid, up to 3.5 by 1.5-2.5 cm, pendulous, pale to darker green, finally pale orange; pericarp up to 1.5 mm thick. Seeds many, ovoid to ellipsoid, flattened, 5-8 by 3-5 by 1.5-3 mm glabrous, yellowish brown, with a spongy white testa, 15-19-ribbed.

A tropical plant. It grows on the coast in the equatorial tropics and up to 200 m altitude and is mostly seen on sandy beaches, under coconuts and in grassland. It cannot tolerate salty soil. It suits drier areas. It is grown on some of the coral atoll islands. It needs a neutral to acid pH. It needs fertile, humus-rich, well-drained soil. It can grow in light shade. This is a crop mainly grown in tropical Asia and Polynesia. It is also grown in East Africa. They occur throughout the Philippines near the seashores. In the Cairns Botanical Gardens. It suits hardiness zones 10-12.

The starchy tuber is eaten. The tubers are scraped and mashed in cold water for 4-5 days. It is then prepared like sago. That is, normally the tuber is scraped into small shreds and then washed in water. The starch is filtered out and allowed to settle. The starch is washed several times to get rid of bitterness which is common with this plant. To get clean white starch, the tuber needs to be carefully peeled. The starch can be hung in a cloth to allow the water to drain and then it can be sun dried. Once dry, the fine powdered arrowroot starch will store well in a sealed jar. The arrowroot starch is tasteless. The leaves have been recorded as eaten in Africa. The yellow fruit is also eaten by children in some places. The seeds are edible.

Plants are grown from division of the small tubers. A spacing 0.6 x 0.6 m is suitable. Polynesian arrowroot is a plant which grows during the wet season and dies during the dry season. When the leaves turn yellow and the plant dies back, the tubers are harvested. Small tubers are kept for replanting. Often plants just regrow naturally from these small tubers that are left in the ground after harvesting. The plant takes between 8 and 10 months to reach maturity. Plants can be grown from seed. The small tubers produced from seeds are then replanted or left to grow for another year.