Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
51. Alismataceae, the Water Plantain Family
3. Sagittaria L. -- Arrowhead, duck potato1. Sagittaria brevirostra Mack. & Bush
Erect, rhizomatous perennial with long-petioled leaves to 6 dm tall. Leaf blades sagittate, mostly 10-30 cm long, to 20 cm wide; the basal lobes usually equaling or longer than the terminal lobe. Inflorescence usually simple or sometimes branched from the lower 1-3 nodes; bracts 1-5.5 cm long, acuminate or attenuate; pedicels of female flowers ascending, 0.5-2 cm long. Flowers male above and female below, often predominantly male or female, seldom all of one sex; sepals reflexed in fruit; petals 1-2 cm long; filaments glabrous, about as long as to longer than the anthers. Fruiting heads to 2 cm across, often apically depressed; achenes 2-3 mm long, dorsal wing entire to crenulate, truncate apically and not continuous with the beak, separated from the beak by a saddlelike depression, ventral wing straight below the beak; beak obliquely ascending to recurved-ascending (even when immature), 0.5-1.5 mm long at maturity. Jul--Sep. Mud or shallow water of streams and lakes; occasional in e and c SD and NE, rare in the w; (OH and MI to SD, s to TX and NM). S. engelmanniana J. G. Smith.
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Return to Family -- Alismataceae - The Water Plantain Family
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