PICKEREL WEED FAMILY. Pontederiaceae. 



PICKEREL WEED FAMILY. Pontederiacece. 



Aquatic herbs with perfect (i. e. having stamens and pis- 

 til), more or less irregular flowers issuing from a spathe or 

 leaflike envelop, which are mostly fertilized by insects. 



A tall plant with one blunt arrowhead- 

 Pickerel Weed T , -f , , . , , 

 Pontederia cor- sha P ed > dark green, thick leaf, varying to 

 data a very elongated triangle shape, and a 

 Light violet- showy flower-spike about 4 inches long, 



crowded with ephemeral, violet-blue 

 b "" e ~ ' flowers which are marked with a distinct 



yellow-green spot. Immediately below 

 the spike is the small spathe. Sometimes the flowers 

 are white. The flower-cup is funnel-formed and six- 

 divided, the upper three divisions united, and the three 

 lower ones spread apart. The six stamens are three of 

 them long and protruding, and three short which are 

 often abortive ; the blue anthers are so placed that it is 

 impossible for an insect to enter the flower-cup without 

 brushing against them and detaching the pollen. The 

 fruit is a bladderlike receptacle containing one seed. The 

 plant is named for Giulio Pontedera, a professor of 

 botany at Padua about 1730. Pickerel weed grows 1-3 

 feet high, and is commonly found in the shallows of ponds 

 and sluggish streams, sometimes associated with the 

 arrowhead. The deer in the Adirondack region fre- 

 quent the lake shores to feed upon it. 

 Mud Plantain A small water plant with deep green, 

 Heteranthera floating, round-kidney-shaped leaves on 

 reniformis long stems, and 2-5 white or pale blue per- 

 White or bluish fect]y developed flowers, which, like those 



of the preceding species, are exceedingly 

 short-lived. The tiny flowers proceed from a spathe or 

 leafy enclosure projecting from the sheathed side of a 

 leaf-stem. The flower-cup shows six nearly equal 

 divisions spread above its slender tube. The plant is 

 named for its unlike anthers, krspa different, smdarfypa 

 anther ; the specific reniformis means kidney-formed, 

 in allusion to the shape of the leaf. It grows about 12 

 inches high, in mud or shallow water, from Conn, to 

 N. J , and west to Kan. , Neb. , and La. See Appendix. 



