Long before I had ever heard of the word “Staycation,” I had set aside the third week of each month to be my vacation time.

A most enticing idea, I planned to cut back to a minimum of housework and devote those extra hours to reading. I figured I could appreciate that one time a month more than a spotless sink. Such a lovely idea.

Of course it didn’t work.

Somehow I seem to have more items on my to-do list, even when trying to cut back. Once those “musts” are taken care of, there never seems to be any time left for me.

All right, there are exceptions. I found the beginnings of this Musing dated either September or October in 2012. Allow me to share and then continue.

Taking time to read, “I quickly zipped though my last Nero Wolfe (always a certain remedy for whatever) and turned to ‘The Hunger Games.’ I found it upsettingly violent and yet, once finished, couldn’t wait to begin the sequel. Well-written and fast-paced, these are the stuff of nightmares so I wouldn’t recommend them. (Just shows how far off the track I was!) Rex Stout and his ‘stout’ detective are much more to my liking . . . and relaxing, much better bedtime reading.

The young heroine in Suzanne Collins’ novels is named peculiarly (as are many of her characters) as Katniss Everdeen. It becomes clear as one goes along, however, that, while her name is unusual, the plant for which she was named is not.

From “The Hunger Games:” “In late summer, I was washing up in a pond when I noticed the plants growing around me. Tall with leaves like arrowheads. Blossoms with three white petals. I knelt down in the water, my fingers dipping into the soft mud, and I pulled up a handful of the roots. Small, bluish tubers that didn’t look like much but boiled or baked are as good as any potato. . . I spent hours stirring up the pond bed with my toes and a stick, gathering the tubers that floated to the top.” (They were starving in District Three.)

And from “Catching Fire,” when she returns to the lake: [As my father would] “bag the waterfowl that nestled around the shore, I’d hunt for eggs in the grasses, and we’d both dig for katniss roots, the plant for which he named me, in the shallows . . . Then [my mother] would cook up an amazing dinner of roast duck and the baked katniss tubers with gravy.”

May I add this from “Peterson Edible Wild Plants:” “The tubers can be gathered in quantity by freeing them from the mud with a hoe or rake and collecting them as they float to the water’s surface. Although slightly unpleasant-tasting raw, the tubers are delicious when cooked, prepared as you would potatoes.”

Another source describes them as bland, with a starchy texture like a potato but crunchier even after it’s been cooked. It is used in Chinese medicine and favored as a food crop in some countries, generally in Asia.

These tubers are also used by ducks and muskrats, known then as “duck potatoes.” It’s said the Indians would open the muskrat dens to get at their cache of roots.

If you’re not hungry this plant can tend to be invasive. Stunningly gorgeous, I’d welcome more here.

Mine is the Common Arrowhead one of the five varieties Newcomb lists. The white flowers have three petals growing one-half to an inch wide in whorls of three generally from a stalk without branches. Stamens number twenty-five to forty. Its leaves, always growing above water, can vary from being extremely broad to very narrow arrow-head shaped. He calls it common. I would love to see more. (Three of the five Arrowheads aren’t generally arrow-shaped at all.)

Obviously an aquatic plant though it can be found only at the edge of shallow water and marshes. I only had one small group so no desire to dig any up for any tasting. I hope you’ll get a chance to see one if you haven’t already.

It’s a true beauty.

Susan Crossett has lived outside Cassadaga for more than 20 years. A lifetime of writing led to these columns as well as two novels. “Her Reason for Being” was published in 2008 with “Love in Three Acts” following in 2014. Both novels are now available at Lakewood’s Off the Beaten Path bookstore. Information on all the Musings, her books and the author may be found at Susancrossett.com.