Leaves floating; petiole to 100 cm; blade ovate, narrowly oval, or narrowly lanceolate, 6--23 ´ 1.5--7.5 cm, base rounded to attenuate, apex obtuse to acute; veins 7--9. Inflorescences: spikes 1 or more, to 4.5 cm; spathe ca. 3 cm. Flowers in 2 rows, secund; tepals becoming green, enlarging, 10--15 ´ 3.5--6 mm, to 30 mm in fruit; veins 13 or more; stamens 3--4.5 mm; filaments expanded basally; anthers blackish purple; pollen yellow; pistils 2.5--3 ´ 0.7--1 mm; ovules usually 4. Fruits to 22 ´ 6 mm; beak 5 mm.
Rhizomatous aquatic. Leaves floating, oblong. Flowers distichous, white, with 1 tepal, scented, stamens 8-16.
Tubers up to 6 cm in diam., dark. Leaves with a floating lamina, lanceolate to oblong, 6-20 cm long and 2-7 cm broad, apex acute to obtuse, base rounded or shortly attenuate. Spikes bifid, many-flowered, up to 6 cm long. Flowers many, scented, dorsally arranged in 2 spreading rows, with the flowers on the one side slightly above those of the other; perianth-segments solitary, oblong to ovate-lanceolate, up to 18 mm long, delicate, white or occasionally pink, accrescent and green in fruit. Stamens 8-16, arranged in a circle, filaments thin, 3 mm long, anthers purple to black. Carpels 2-6 with c.4 ovules in each carpel. Follicles turbinate, c. 1 cm long with a straight beak, 1-4 seeded, seeds 9 mm long, with a spongy outer covering.
Rhizomatous aquatic. Leaves with long slender petioles, floating blades oblong, 60-230 mm long. Inflorescence of 2 spikes on a scape up to 800 mm long. Flowers arranged in 2 rows on one side of each spike, white, with 1 large tepal, scented and edible.
Common in the winter-rainfall area of the Cape Province and, eastwards, to Plettenberg Bay. Often cultivated in Europe and said to have gone wild in the south of France.
Bokkeveld Mountains and Tanqua Karoo to SW Cape, Laingsburg and Knysna.
| Name | Language | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cape-pondweed, water-hawthorne |
|
