Sagittaria L.

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.

• Family

  Alismataceae

• Scientific Name

  Sagittaria L.

• Description

  Genus Description - Perennials, mostly with tuber-bearing cr nodose rootstocks, basal longpetioled nerved leaves, the nerves connected by numerous veinlets, and erect, decumbent or floating scapes, or the leaves reduced to bladeless phyllodes. Flowers monoecious or dioecious, borne near the summits of the scapes in verticils of 3's, pedieelled, the staminate usually uppermost. Verticils 3-bracted. Sepals persistent, those of the pistillate flowers reflexed or spreading in our species. Petals 3, white, deciduous. Stamens inserted on the convex receptacle; staminate flowers sometimes with imperfect ovaries. Pistillate flowers with numerous distinct ovaries, sometimes with imperfect stamens; ovule solitary; stigmas small, persistent. Achenes numerous, densely aggregated in globose or subglobose heads, compressed. Seed erect, curved. [Latin, referring to the arrow-shaped leaves of some species.] About 40 species, natives of temperate and tropical regions. Type species: Sagittaria sagittifolia L.