Elodea

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Hydrocharitaceae

• Scientific Name

  Elodea

• Description

  Genus Description - Fls unisexual (and the plants dioecious) or seldom perfect, borne singly in submersed, sessile or subsessile, axillary, bidentate or bifid spathes, elevated to the surface of the water on a long, slender, pedicel-like hypanthium (or the staminate fls sessile, breaking loose, and floating); fls ephemeral and delicate; pet white or purple, not much (if at all) longer than the sep, or wanting; no nectaries; staminate fls with typically 9 stamens, an outer cycle of 6 distinct, an inner cycle of 3 with the filaments evidently connate below, the filaments shorter than the explosively dehiscent, eventually explanate anthers; pollen floating; pistillate fls with 3 staminodia, and an elongate style with 3 slender, simple or often bifid stigmas; ovules few, parietal or nearly basal; fr capsular; submersed aquatic perennials, rooted to the bottom or free-drifting when broken loose; stems simple or sparsely branched; lvs all cauline, sessile, slender, minutely and sharply serrulate, 1-nerved, at least the middle and upper opposite or whorled; stipules minute, evanescent. (Anacharis, Philotria) 5, New World. E. schweinitzii (Planch.) Casp., with perfect fls and 3 stamens, originally native apparently to s. N.Y. and e. Pa., has not been recollected since 1832 and is apparently extinct. It may reflect hybridization between E. canadensis and E. nuttallii.

• Common Names

  water-weed