Calla palustris

A perennial herb reaching 0.3 m (1 ft) tall and wide, hardy to UK zone 4. Flowers bloom June to July with seeds ripening August to September. Hermaphroditic flowers pollinated by flies. Grows in light sandy, medium loamy, and heavy clay soils. Tolerates mildly acidic, neutral, and very acidic pH. Requires full sun and wet or aquatic conditions; cannot grow in shade.

Description

A creeping plant. It has a creeping rhizome. This can be 15-50 cm long. It has round, shiny, heart shaped leaves. They are pointed and firm and leathery. The flowers are lily like and white. The flowers are pollinated by water snails. The fruit spikes are made up of red berries.

Edible Uses

Edible Parts: Fruit Root Seed Edible Uses: Rhizome - cooked. It is usually prepared by drying the root, grinding it into a powder and then thoroughly cooking it to ensure that any acrimonious principle is completely destroyed. The resulting powder is rich in starch and can be used as a flour for making bread etc, especially in conjunction with cereal flours. It is said to be very tasty. Fruit (does this include the seed?) - it should be dried and then thoroughly cooked. The dried fruit and rootstalk can be ground into an unpalatable but nutritious powder. The seed is dried, cooked and ground into a powder.

Traditional Uses

The starch of the root is used for adding to bread flour after removing the acrid element. This is done by drying, grinding then heating. The leaves are eaten in Bangladesh. It needs special preparation to remove oxalates. The dried seeds thoroughly and they are then ground into flour.

Medicinal Uses

Antirheumatic Poultice Antirheumatic. Used in the treatment of colds and flu. A tea made from the dried root has been used in the treatment of flu, shortness of breath, bleeding and as a poultice on swellings and snakebites. The aerial stems have been used in the treatment of sore legs.

Known Hazards

The plant contains calcium oxylate crystals. These cause an extremely unpleasant sensation similar to needles being stuck into the mouth and tongue if they are eaten, but they are easily neutralized by thoroughly drying or cooking the plant or by steeping it in water.

Distribution

It grows in temperate places. It grows in meadows, swamps, in shallow water below 1100 m in northern China. It grows near the edge of water. It cannot tolerate more than 5 cm of water over its crown.

Where It Grows

Alaska, Asia, Australia, Bangladesh, Britain, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Estonia, Europe, France, Germany, Korea, Luxembourg, North America, Russia, Scandinavia, Slovenia, Turkey, Türkiye, USA,

Cultivation

It is grown by division of the rootstock. Plants can also be grown by seeds.

Propagation

Seed - best sown as soon as it is ripe in late summer in a cold frame in pots standing in about 3cm of water. Sow stored seed as early as possible in the year in a greenhouse. The germination rate of stored seed is often poor. When large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in trays of water in the greenhouse for at least their first winter, planting them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts. Division in spring. Very easy, it is possible to divide this plant at almost any time in the growing season. Any part of the stem, if placed in water or a pot of very wet soil, will quickly root away to form a new plant. Stem cuttings in summer, rooted in wet mud.

Other Uses

None known Special Uses

Other Information

It is a famine food.

Notes

There is only one Calla species.

Also Known As

D'ablik bahenni, Kachu, Khlebnik, Khlebnitsa, Marsh calla, Močvirska kačunka, Soovonk, Vehka, Zhitnitsa

References (23)

• Beckstrom-Sternberg, Stephen M., and James A. Duke. "The Foodplant Database." http://probe.nalusda.gov:8300/cgi-bin/browse/foodplantdb.(ACEDB version 4.0 - data version July 1994)
• Bircher, A. G. & Bircher, W. H., 2000, Encyclopedia of Fruit Trees and Edible Flowering Plants in Egypt and the Subtropics. AUC Press. p 73
• Bodkin, F., 1991, Encyclopedia Botanica. Cornstalk publishing, p 193
• Brown, D., 2000, Aroids. Plants of the Arum family. Timber Press. (Second edition) p 270
• Bowser, M., 2017, Handout on Edible Plants of the Kenai Peninsula. USFWS Kenai National Wildlife Refuge p 10

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