Goeppertia allouia
Goeppertia allouia, the lerén or Guinea arrowroot, is a lowland prayer-plant relative from the Caribbean, Mexico and tropical South America. It grows to about 1 m, with plain green leaves up to 60 cm long. It is grown more as a root crop than an ornamental, for the small edible tubers on its roots. Unlike most goeppertias it follows a wet-and-dry cycle: shoots appear with the rains, and the foliage dies back after eight or nine months while the tubers ripen.
Where it grows wild
Herbarium labels place it in moist terra firme and semideciduous lowland forest, riparian forest, disturbed secondary growth and roadside thickets. It is also widely cultivated or semi-cultivated around villages. It tolerates a range of light, from forest shade to open sun, and its rhizomes survive both waterlogging and drying out.
Recorded from sea level to 1733 m, but mostly lowland: the median of 66 dated records is 300 m.
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