✻Forecast FarmClimate · Cultivation · Consequence
Tropical rhizome · Starch crop

Arrowroot

Maranta arundinacea · Marantaceae

Arrowroot is a tropical herbaceous crop that grows best in the 23–29°C range with 1500–2000 mm of rain, cropping over a 300–365-day season.

Optimal temp
23–29 °C
Annual rain
1500–2000 mm
Max altitude
1,000 m
Cold limit
17°C
Growing cycle
300–365 d
Climate-fit land
20 % world

How it grows

Arrowroot
Photo: Noblevmy at Malayalam Wikipedia · CC BY 2.5
Arrowroot
Photo: Vijayanrajapuram · CC BY-SA 4.0
🫚 A rhizome, in the ground

Arrowroot is a knobbly rhizome dug from just below the ground.

Where Earth's climate suits arrowroot

Global climatic suitability map for Arrowroot
marginal suitable good excellent unsuitable land
20% of world land

Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).

Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it

Actual production
FAOSTAT reports this crop only inside a broader category, so standalone country tonnage is not shown.
Climatic fit · computed
Where the climate suits it best
Brazil
Dem. Rep. Congo
Indonesia
India
Colombia
Venezuela
Angola
Peru
Ranked by suitable land area (EcoCrop×AgroClim). Climate permits far more than is farmed — economics and history decide the rest.

Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop

Temperatureoptimum 23–29°C · tolerates 17–34°C
-5°C45°C
Annual rainfalloptimum 1500–2000 mm · tolerates 700–4000 mm
0 mm4500 mm
Soil pHoptimum 5.0–8.0 · tolerates 5.0–8.0
3.09.0

Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±15° · soil pH 5–8.

Growing calendar & hazards

Season

An annual cycle of roughly 300–365 days from sowing to harvest, so it is timed to fall within the frost-free, adequately-wet part of the year for the location.

What threatens the crop
  • Cold & frost. A frost-sensitive crop: temperatures near or below freezing damage or kill it, so it is confined to frost-free seasons and warm climates.

Related crops

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