Sagittaria macrophylla, common name papa de agua, is an aquatic plant species. It produces underground starchy tubers that are edible. It has large, hastate (arrow-shaped) leaves with blades up to long. The terminal lobe is large and broadly lanceolate, while the two basal lobes are much smaller and narrower.Zepeda Gómez, Carmen, Lot, Antonio. Distribución y uso tradicional de Sagittaria macrophylla Zucc. y S. latifolia Willd. en el Estado de México. Ciencia Ergo Sum [online] 2005, 12 (noviembre-febrero) : [Date of reference: 18 / abril / 2014] Available in:<http://estudiosterritoriales.org/articulo.oa?id=10412308> ISSN 1405-0269Joseph Gerhard Zuccarini. 1832. Abhandlungen der Königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Abteilung 1: 298, Sagittaria macrophylla
It is endemic to central Mexico (States of Jalisco, Michoacán, México, Hidalgo, and the Distrito Federal), primarily in the region close to the nation's capital. It grows in clean, shallow, slow-moving water. It is considered threatened by habitat destruction due to urbanization.
The tubers and those of other species of Sagittaria are a traditional food source in central Mexico, referred to as papa de agua ('water potato').
References
External links photo of herbarium specimen at Field Museum in Chicago, collected in Distrito Federal de Mexico