Maranta ruiziana – Fiberless Arrowroot Relative – Extremely Rare

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This is an obscure arrowroot relative from Amazonia.  This is a plant with great potential because the rhizomes have the same sweet corn flavor as normal arrowroot but lack the coarse fibers.  This can be peeled and eaten as a vegetable and is like a corn flavored starchy turnip/jicama!  Blended with broth it made an instant thick corn chowder.  It took hours of research to find much about the consumption of this plant, but a deep dive revealed that this is grown as a vegetable crop in remote rainforest areas of Ecuador, Peru, etc.  The plant is more fickle than normal arrowroot.  It seems to really prefer shade and good soil moisture.  Unfortunately in our first year of growing (2022), the season was cut short by a hurricane which greatly damaged the plants as they were beginning to store up starch.  Rhizome production was probably heavily diminished because of this interference but we did get some production.  The potential production and size of the rhizomes under Florida conditions is still to be determined.  Our original planting material had rhizomes that were even larger than Maranta arundinacea.  The plants have a growing and dormancy cycle just like arrowroot.  Our taste report is based on eating one piece and our limited knowledge is based on one irregular growing season.  There is great potential but this crop should still be considered experimental in Florida.  This may be the first ever offering of this plant to Florida growers as it is very rare and virtually unknown even amongst collectors of edibles.  Plants are propagated by planting whole rhizomes.

Planting pieces for 2023 are small due to hurricane damage.

Maranta ruiziana – 3 rhizomes