Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
59. Araceae, the Arum Family
2. Calla L. -- Water arum1. Calla palustris L.
Arising from thick sprawling rhizomes, the rhizomes buried in mud or floating under the water surface. Leaves petioled, the blades broadly heart-shaped, cordate, mucronate at the tip, 5-15 cm long, about as wide as long; petioles stout, flaccid when submersed, 5-20 cm long, often longer when submersed. Scape resembling the petioles; spathe and spadix terminal, the spathe clearly differentiated from the scape, white, ovate, caudate at the tip, exceeding or about equaling the mature spadix; spadix borne on a short stipe, short-cylindric, 3-4 cm long in fruit, 2-3 cm thick. Flowers perfect or the uppermost staminate; perianth none; pistil simple. Fruit a fleshy berry, ripening red, 8-12 mm long, containing few seeds. Jun--Jul. Bogs and swamps; rare in ND, with local populations in Pembina and Rolette counties; (Circumboreal, in N.Amer. s to MD, IN, IA, n ND and nw to c AK).
 Calla palustris. |
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