出水水菜花 chu shui shui cai hua

Leaves emersed; petiole 45-90 cm; leaf blade narrowly cordate, 9-20 × 4.5-14 cm, leathery, base cordate, apex obtuse. Flowers unisexual. Spathe 5-7.5 × 3-3.5 cm, with 3 longitudinal ribs. Male spathe with 47-60 male flowers; sepals greenish; petals white with yellow base, obovate, 4-5.5 cm; stamens 12; filaments upper densely hairy; anthers 4-9 mm; staminodes 3; reduced pistil 1. Female spathe with only 1 female flower; perianth larger than male ones; ovary ovoid, with 14-16 carpels; styles 14-18, bifid and hairy at apex; staminodes 6-9. Fruit oblong, 4.5-7 × 3-5 cm. Seeds fusiform, ca. 1.6 mm, densely hairy. Fl. May, fr. Jun-Jul. 2n = 22*.

● Ponds. Guangxi (Guixian).

This species differs from Ottelia cordata by its leaves emersed and not dimorphic, male flowers in each spathe with up to 47-60 flowers, and seeds densely hairy.