Habit: Annual to subshrub or emergent aquatic, often floating, rooting at nodes.
Leaf: alternate to opposite.
Inflorescence: spike; flowers 1 per bract.
Flower: radial; hypanthium 0; sepals 4--5(7), persistent; petals (0)4--5(7), white to yellow; stamens 4 or 10(12), pollen generally shed singly (in California); stigma club-shaped to spheric.
Fruit: irregularly dehiscing; wall thick or thin.
Seed: free or embedded in woody piece of fruit wall.
Species In Genus: 82 species: +- worldwide.
Etymology: (C.G. Ludwig, German botanist, physician, 1709--1773)
Note: Many polyploids.
Jepson eFlora Author: Peter C. Hoch & Brenda J. Grewell
Reference: Raven 1963 Reinwardtia 6:327--427
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Ludwigia
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