Maranta arundinacea
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Maranta arundinacea, also known as arrowroot, maranta, West Indian arrowroot,<ref name=GRIN>Template:GRIN</ref> obedience plant or Bermuda arrowroot<ref name=CRC>Template:Cite book</ref> is a large, perennial herb found in rainforest habitats of the Americas, but cultivated in tropical regions worldwide.
DescriptionEdit
Arrowroot is a perennial plant growing to a height of between Template:Convert and Template:Convert. Its leaves are lanceolate. The edible part of the plant is the rhizome. Twin clusters of small white flowers bloom about 90 days after planting. The plant rarely produces seeds and reproduction is typically by planting part of a rhizome with a bud. Rhizomes are ready for harvesting 10–12 months after planting as the leaves of the plant begin to wilt and die. The rhizomes are fleshy, cylindrical, and grow from Template:Convert to Template:Convert long.<ref>Root Crops, NRI, 1987. http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=q-00000-00---off-0fnl2%2e2--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-----sti--0-1l--11-en-50---20-about-root+crops+--00-0-1-00-0--4----0-0-11-10-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&c=fnl2.2&srp=0&srn=0&cl=search&d=HASHd8d905db1c6eae0daee48f.22 Template:Webarchive; FAO, "Maranta arundinacea", http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/cropView?id=2335 Template:Webarchive, accessed 19 February 2016</ref>
The arrowroot plant probably originated in the Amazon rainforest of northwestern Brazil and neighboring countries. It grows best between temperatures of Template:Convert and Template:Convert with annual precipitation between Template:Convert and Template:Convert. The dormant rhizomes can withstand temperatures as low as Template:Convert.<ref>"Maranta arundinacea", http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Maranta+arundinacea Template:Webarchive, accessed 19 February 2016</ref>
In the continental United States, arrowroot is cultivated as an outside plant only in southern Florida.<ref>"Arrowroot – "Moscata arundinecea" EDIS, University of Florida, https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/mv009 Template:Webarchive, accessed 19 February 2016</ref>
DistributionEdit
Maranta arundinacea is native to Mexico, Central America, the West Indies (Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and most of the Lesser Antilles) and South America (in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana).<ref name="GRIN" /> It is widely cultivated in many warm countries and is considered naturalized in The Bahamas, Bermuda, Cambodia, China (Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan), the Cook Islands, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan (in the Volcano Islands), Mauritius, the Netherlands Antilles, Réunion, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, Tonga, the United States (Florida), the Philippines and Vanuatu.<ref name=POWO/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Caribbean island nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines is the world's largest grower of arrowroot and producer of arrowroot flour.<ref>"Root Crops"</ref> In Kerala, India, arrowroot, locally called ബിലാത്തി കൂവ (Bilathi Kūva), is cultivated to produce an easily digestible starch.,<ref>"Koova (arrowroot), http://papanasini.blogspot.com/2014/01/koova.html Template:Webarchive, accessed 21 February 2016</ref> while in Odisha, India, it's called ପାଳୁଅ (Paḷua).
Prehistoric domesticationEdit
Radio-carbon dating has established that M. arundinacea was one of the first plants domesticated in prehistoric South America. Arrowroot, along with leren (Goeppertia allouia), squash (Cucurbita moschata), and bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) became cultivated plants in northern South American and Panama between 8200 BC and 5600 BC.<ref>Piperno, Dolores R. (Oct 2011), "The Origins of Plant Cultivation and Domestication in the New World Tropics", Current Anthropology, Vol 52, No. 54, p. S 459. Downloaded from JSTOR.</ref> Some archaeologists believe that arrowroot was first used by indigenous peoples not as food but as a poultice to extract poison from wounds caused by spears or arrows.<ref>Piperno, Dolores R. and Pearsall, Deborah M. (1998), The Origins of Agriculture in the Lowland Neotropics, San Diego: Academic Press, p. 115, 199</ref>
Evidence of the use of arrowroot as food has been found dating from 8200 BC at the San Isidro archaeological site in the upper Cauca River valley of Colombia near the city of Popayán. Starch grains from arrowroot were found on grinding tools. It is unclear whether the arrowroot had been gathered or grown, although the elevation of the site of Template:Convert is probably outside the normal range of elevations at which M. arundinacea grows in the wild. Thus, the plant may have been introduced at San Isidro from nearby lowland rainforest areas in a pioneering effort to cultivate it. Stone hoes for the cultivation of plants have been found which date as old as 7700 BCE in the middle Cauca valley, Template:Convert north of San Isidro.<ref>Piperno and Pearsall, pp. 199–203</ref>
Domestication of arrowroot at these early dates was probably on a small scale with gardens of only a few plants being planted in alluvial soils near streams to ensure the steady supply of moisture needed during the growing season of arrowroot and other similar root crops. The exploitation of arrowroot was probably complicated by the difficulty of extracting the starch from the fibrous roots. The roots must first be pounded or ground then soaked in water to separate the starch from the fibers. The starch is excellent for digestibility.<ref>Piperno and Pearsall, pp 115, 202</ref>
UsesEdit
Currently, arrowroot starch is used in food preparations and confectionery, and for industrial applications such as cosmetics and glue. The residue of starch extraction has a high fibre content and can be fed to livestock.<ref>Heuzé V., Tran G., 2017. Arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea). Feedipedia, a programme by INRA, CIRAD, AFZ and FAO. https://www.feedipedia.org/node/545 Template:Webarchive Last updated on 17 July 2017, 14:10</ref>
GalleryEdit
- Arrowrootഃ plant flower 04.jpg
Arrowroot flower