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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]

HETERANTHERA

MUD PLANTAIN

Annual, perennial herb, generally submersed, emergent, or on wet ground
Stem ± erect, slender, elongate, ± spreading, rooting at nodes or stout
Leaves alternate, linear, sessile, or ± in basal rosettes, ± ovate, long-petioled
Inflorescence generally 1-flowered
Flower ± radial; perianth salverform, lobes 6; stamens 3, alike or of 2 sizes, shapes, anthers coiling or not; ovary 1-chambered
Fruit: capsule
Seeds many, longitudinally ribbed
Species in genus: ± 12 species: tropical, temp Am, Africa
Etymology: (Greek: different, anther, from unequal anthers of most spp)
. Fls developed underwater generally cleistogamous.

Introduced

H. limosa (Sw.) Willd.

Annual, generally emergent or on wet ground (submersed as seedlings)
Leaf: blade > 4 cm; petiole > 15 cm
Flower appearing ± terminal; perianth white to blue-purple, tube > 1.5 cm; stamens 3, of 2 sizes, shapes, anthers not coiled
Ecology: Uncommon. Rice fields
Elevation: < 100 m.
Bioregional distribution: Sacramento Valley
Distribution outside California: native to c&eastern US, tropical America

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