TREATMENT FROM THE JEPSON MANUAL	previous taxon | next taxon Jepson Interchange (more information)
	©Copyright 1993 by the Regents of the University of California Print edition is available from the University of California Press

	The second edition of The Jepson Manual (2012) is available from the University of California Press
	See also the Jepson eFlora, which parallels the Second Edition

PONTEDERIACEAE

PICKEREL-WEED FAMILY

Elizabeth McClintock

Annual, perennial herb, submersed, emergent, floating, or on wet ground
Leaves simple, alternate or whorled, ± in basal rosette or not; blade linear (especially underwater) to round, sagittate or cordate or not, bases generally sheathing, veins parallel; petioles sometimes inflated or 0 (especially underwater)
Inflorescence: raceme, spike, panicle, or 1-flowered, terminal but often appearing ± axillary, subtended by sheathing bract
Flower bisexual, radial or ± bilateral; perianth lobes generally 6, in 2 series of 3, petal-like; stamens equal or not, attached to perianth tube at various levels, 3, 6, (1, 4), sometimes 3 sterile, modified; ovary superior, 1–3-chambered
Fruit: 1-seeded utricle or many-seeded, loculicidal capsule
Seeds small, longitudinally ribbed or not
Genera in family: ± 6 genera, 30 species: most pantrop, some temp. Some cultivated as orns, some weeds, especially in rice fields
Reference: [Rosatti 1987 J Arnold Arb 68:35–71]