This section is from the book "An Illustrated Flora Of The Northern United States, Canada And The British Possessions Vol1", by Nathaniel Lord Britton, Addison Brown. Also available from Amazon: An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. 3 Volume Set..
Pickerel-weed Family. Perennial aquatic or bog plants, the leaves petioled, with thick blades, or long and grass-like. Flowers perfect, more or less irregular, solitary or spiked, subtended by leaf-like spathes. Perianth free from the ovary, corolla-like, 6-parted. Stamens 3 or 6, inserted on the tube or the base of the perianth; filaments filiform, dilated at the base or thickened at the middle; anthers 2-celled, linear-oblong or rarely ovate. Ovary 3-celled with axile placentae, or 1-celled with 3 parietal placentae; style filiform or columnar; stigma terminal, entire or minutely toothed; ovules anatropous, numerous, sometimes only 1 of them perfecting. Fruit a many-seeded capsule, or a 1-celled, 1-seeded utricle. Endosperm of the seed copious; embryo central, cylindric.
About 5 genera and 25 species, inhabiting fresh water in the warm and temperate regions of America, Asia and Africa. | ||
Flowers 2-lipped, stamens 6; fruit a 1-seeded utricle. | 1. | Pontedcria. |
Flowers regular; stamens a: fruit a many-seeded capsule. | 2. | Heteranthcra. |
 
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