Disambiguation
Maranta arundinacea should not be confused with other plants with similar common names. These include:
- Sagittaria species, sometimes called "arrowhead" and used as a root vegetable
- Pluchea sericea, sometimes called "arrowweed", which also has edible roots
- Zamia pumila, a cycad sometimes known as Florida arrowroot
- Queensland arrowroot, a cultivar belonging to the Canna Agriculture Group
- Colocasia esculenta, sometimes called arrowroot in East Africa
- Curcuma angustifolia, a starchy root in the Zingiberaceae family that is cultivated widely in India.
Arrowroot is also used to refer to a similar edible starch obtained from various other tropical plants, for example West Indian arrowroot. The term arrowroot sometimes is used to refer to any starch, not specifically arrowroot starch. In particular, Florida arrowroot was a commercial starch derived from Zamia pumila, harvested from the wild in Florida. Most starch sold today as arrowroot actually is tapioca.
Read more about this topic: Arrowroot