Alisma
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 Alisma gramineum
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A. gramineum |
Alisma is a genus of plants in the Alismataceae family.
Alisma, the Latin name for Water Plantain and ancient Greek name, adopted by Linnaeus from Dioscorides. Perhaps itself derived from the Celtic, alias, "water".
[edit] Description
Leaves aerial, floating or submerged. Flowers hermaphrodite, in panicles or occasionally (in small plants) in racemes or umbels. Stamens 6. Carpels numerous 11–28 in a single whorl, free, each with 1 ovule; styles subventral. Fruitlets achenial, laterally compressed, obovate to elliptical, with a short ventral beak.
[edit] Ecology
Found in similar habitats to Sagittaria but much commoner and wide-spread.
John Ruskin believed that the particular curve of its leaf-ribs (along with several other examples) represented a model of 'divine proportion' and helped shape his theory of Gothic architecture.
[edit] Refs
ref: Bjorkqvist, I., in Op. Bot. (Lund)17:1 - 128 (1967); 19:1 - 138 (1968)
