Echinodorus nymphaeifolius
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| Echinodorus nymphaeifolius Buchenau in Bot, Jahrb. 2:483, 1882 |
In Rataj's taxonomy nymphaeifolius is in Section Nymphaeifolii, Subgenus Helianthium. The only species in this section.
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[edit] Synonyms
Alisma nymphaeifolium Griseb.; Helianthium nymphaeifolium (Griseb.) Small
[edit] Description
Variable - one plant can develop 2 - 3 stems of different types simultaneously.
Submersed leaves short-petiolate, blades long, lanceolate to linear, light-green, membraneously transparent, 15 - 25 cm long x 0.8 - 1.8 cm wide, obtuse at the point, decurrent to the markedly alate petiole at the base. Their margins are undulate to curled, sometimes narrowly parallel, another time the blades broaden towards the apex and are widest in the upper 1/3 showing clariform.
Floating or emersed leaves are 25 - 35 cm lomg, long-petioled, blades oval or ovate with conspicuous lobes, which touch and / or cover each other. Blades and lobes inclusively 6 - 12 cm long x 5 - 8 cm wide, the length of the central rib usually being the same as the width of the blade. In the blade there are, some distance from each other, clear, short and longer pellucid lines reaching a length of 0.2 - 0.3 mm. Sterile plants look very similar to E. berteroi.
This species markedly differs from all the others by a typical paniculate infloresenceof a regular pyramidial shape. Stem 40 - 50 cm long, infloresence up to 12 - 20 cm long, whorls 2 - 6, bracts of the lower whorl reach a length of 2.5 - 4 cm and a width of 0.5 - 0.8 cm, bracts in further whorls being only 2 - 5 mm long.
Corolla white, stamens usually 9. Compounsruit comprises maximum 20 axhenes which are 1.4 - 1.6 mm long x 1 mm wide with a broad crested keel and with crested ribs and 1 or 2 long glands on each face, beak 0.2 mm long.
[edit] Distribution
Cuba, Mexico & British Honduras
[edit] Cultivation
Easy to cultivate but readily forms floating leaves.
