[8] Maranta arundinacea is native to Mexico, Central America, the West Indies (Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and most of the Lesser Antilles) and South America (in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana).

[4] It is widely cultivated in many warm countries and is considered naturalized in The Bahamas, Bermuda, Cambodia, China (Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan), the Cook Islands, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan (in the Volcano Islands), Mauritius, the Netherlands Antilles, Réunion, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, Tonga, the United States (Florida), the Philippines and Vanuatu.

[12] Some archaeologists believe that arrowroot was first used by indigenous peoples not as food but as a poultice to extract poison from wounds caused by spears or arrows.

[13] Evidence of the use of arrowroot as food has been found dating from 8200 BC at the San Isidro archaeological site in the upper Cauca River valley of Colombia near the city of Popayán.

Thus, the plant may have been introduced at San Isidro from nearby lowland rainforest areas in a pioneering effort to cultivate it.

Stone hoes for the cultivation of plants have been found which date as old as 7700 BCE in the middle Cauca valley, 150 kilometres (93 mi) north of San Isidro.