Myriophyllum aquaticum
Content
Description
Aquatic or semiterrestrial.
Leaf-base ± dilated, c. 0.6-1 mm wide, of a whorl at least in the upper sterile shoots enclosing the stem at the nodes, blade oblong in outline, c. 2-4 by ½-1 cm, rather stiffly patent to erectopatent, with 8-18 pairs of subulate, mucronate lobes, 2-8 by c. 0.2 mm.
Flowers solitary in the middle and upper leaf-axils.
Fruit (sec. SCHINDLER) ovoid, 4-sulcate, c. 1.8 by 1.2 mm, shortly pedicelled, papillose.
Distribution
Argentina present, Asia-Tropical, Australasia: New South Wales (New South Wales present); Queensland (Queensland present); Victoria (Victoria present), Chile present, E. Brazil present, Japan present, New Zealand present, North I present, South America, Southern America: Uruguay (Uruguay present), W. Java present, casually to New York present
Native in South America (E. Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile), often cultivated elsewhere in ponds or aquaria; naturalized in Japan (“Yamamoko in Settsu”), in Australia (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland; New Zealand: North I.), in SW. and SE. North America (casually to New York), and in Malesia: locally abundant in W. Java.
Uses
In Java cultivated in fish-ponds; tips are eaten as a vegetable. Easily propagated ve-getatively.
Notes
All naturalized specimens are sterile or have only ♀ flowers and do not produce fruit. Also in South America fruits rarely occur. The only description of the ripe fruit was given by SCHINDLER. An illustration of an apparently ripe fruit is found in .
Citation
BACK. & BAKH.f. 1963 – In: Fl. Java: 266
MEIJDEN 1969 – In: Blumea: 171
CURTIS 1956 – In: Stud. Fl. Tasm.: 190
SCHINDL. 1905 – In: Pfl. R.: 88
STEEN. 1932: Arch. Hydrobiol.: 315
CAMBESS. 1927: Nutt. Pl., ed. 3: 1207
ALSTON 1967 – In: Muelleria: 171
VAN DER MEIJDEN 1971 – In: Fl. Mal.: 253
VELL. 1835 – In: Icon.: t. 150
MASON 1957: Fl. Marshes Calif: 615: f. 280
HEYNE 1917 – In: Nutt. Pl., ed. 1: 391