Queensland Arrowroot | Canna edulis

Note: this plant is delivered as one plantable rootl

Easy carbohydrate crop for self-sufficiency

Beat rising food costs with Queensland arrowroot,  an easy reliable carbohydrate crop for self-sufficiency. It produces abundant starchy rhizomes that thrives on neglect, making it a practical choice for home gardeners looking to grow their own staple foods. While it does not have the showy flowers of ornamental canna varieties, the big bold leaves give your garden a tropical look.

Edible tuber crop & mulch powerhouse

Queensland arrowroot is a ridiculously easy-to-grow edible perennial that produces abundant starchy rhizomes and large amounts of biomass for mulch. It’s an excellent low-maintenance crop for home gardeners, food forests, and permaculture systems.

Taste and kitchen use – what I think of it as an edible plant

We have cooked and eaten the rhizomes ourselves—boiled, baked, and fried—and they genuinely taste good. When prepared properly, they have a mild flavour and a soft, potato-like texture. Our fried arrowroot turned out super crispy – a nice finger food!

Some sources mention that older roots can become fibrous. In our experience, this hasn’t been an issue when:

• harvesting within about a year, or
• slicing thinly across the fibre and cooking thoroughly

I still have some kitchen projects to explore the plant further:

• extracting the starch to make gf flour
• making arrowroot beer
• cooking the young shoots

If you have some recipes, I would be super interested to know them!

Productive and multifunctional plant

Growing up to around 2 metres tall, Queensland arrowroot quickly forms a dense screen—ideal for covering fences or creating shelter in the garden.

It also produces a large volume of leafy biomass, making it an excellent chop-and-drop mulch plant.

Cooked and mashed rhizomes of Canna edulis (Queensland arrowroot) can be used as a high-energy supplementary feed for chickens, providing a useful source of easily digestible starch, especially during periods of low grain availability. Chicken will also nibble on the green leaves.

For ruminants (cows, goats, and sheep), the leaves function primarily as a protein- and mineral-rich green browse rather than a bulk energy feed. The foliage has moderate crude protein (often in the ~10–18% range depending on age and growing conditions) and is generally palatable, especially when young and actively growing. Goats tend to browse it most aggressively, and sheep will consume it readily.

It is a great plant in cut-and-carry systems. Canna edulis is very productive, especially in Queensland, but even in Port Stephens, I found it performed very well. In hotter regions it produces a crazy amount of biomass per square metre and grows very fast after cutting. It also tolerates wet soil well. 

From a ruminant feeding perspective, its value lies in:

• High leaf volume production (useful in cut-and-carry systems)
• Moderate protein contribution to balance low-quality roughage diets
• Mineral diversity from lush tropical growth
• Reliable regrowth, making it a steady “green feed bank”

However, like many lush tropical perennials, it is low in dry matter compared to grasses or hay, meaning it cannot replace fibrous bulk feeds. Instead, it performs best as a supplementary green forage integrated with pasture, hay, or browse species.

Overall, Queensland arrowroot is best viewed as a dual-purpose plant:

• rhizomes → high-energy supplementary feed (especially for poultry and potentially pigs)
• leaves → productive, moderately nutritious ruminant browse that supports goat and cow systems as a green protein supplement rather than a staple forage

Growing conditions

Queensland arrowroot thrives in warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical climates and performs best in frost-free areas, although it tolerates light frosts and regrows from the rhizome.

• Sun: Full sun to partial shade
• Soil: Prefers moist, fertile soil but tolerates a wide range, including heavier soils
• Water: Drought-tolerant once established, but yields improve with regular watering
• Moisture: Can handle wet feet and periodic waterlogging

Planting and spacing

Allow about 60–100 cm between plants to give clumps room to expand.

Harvesting

Rhizomes can be harvested from around 6–12 months after planting. For best eating quality, harvest younger rhizomes.

In mild climates, plants can be left in the ground and harvested as needed. The rhizomes do not store well once dug and are best used fresh.

Propagation

Very easy to propagate by dividing rhizomes. Each piece with at least one growing eye will produce a new plant.

Most cultivated forms of Canna edulis (Queensland arrowroot) are triploid, meaning they have three sets of chromosomes instead of the normal two. Because of this, the plants are largely sterile or produce non-viable seeds.

Even when seeds are produced, they are often:

• rare or inconsistent
• slow and unreliable to germinate
• genetically variable (not true to type)

For this reason, Queensland arrowroot is almost always propagated vegetatively from rhizome divisions, which guarantees fast, reliable growth and maintains the same productive traits as the parent plant.