Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
51. Alismataceae, the Water Plantain Family
3. Sagittaria L. -- Arrowhead, duck potato5. Sagittaria latifolia Willd.
Emergent to emersed perennial 2-8 dm tall, or much longer when growing in deep water, rhizomatous and with tubers in autumn. Leaves highly variable depending on water depth, emersed leaf blades sagittate, mostly 8-40 cm long, 0.4-15 cm wide, the lobes narrow and linear on plants of deep water to broadly deltoid on emersed specimens, the basal lobes shorter to longer than the terminal one; submersed phyllodes, if produced, apparently gone by flowering time. Inflorescences 1-few, simple or rarely branched from the lowest node; bracts bluntly acute to obtuse, 0.5-1 cm long; pedicels slender, 0.3-3.5 cm long, ascending to spreading. Flowers male above and female below or seldom all of one sex; sepals ovate, 4-10 mm long, broadly rounded, reflexed in fruit; petals white, 7-20 mm long; filaments glabrous, longer than the anther. Fruiting heads globose to somewhat flattened, 1-2.5 cm across; achenes 2.5-4 mm long, dorsal wing rounded over the top of the achene, ventral wing gradually widened upward to meet the beak; beak projecting horizontally, tapered, 1-1.5(2.5) mm long. Jul--Sep. Mud or shallow water of rivers, streams, lakes and marshes; frequent in e ND, e and s SD and NE; (N.S. and Que. to B.C., s to S.Amer.).
Many records of S. latifolia for the w and c parts of ND and SD and
e WY are based upon misidentifications of S. cuneata.
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