PICKERELWEED

(Pontederia cordata L.)

PICKERELWEED FAMILY (Pontederiaceae)

IND. STATUS: OBL

FIELD CHARACTERISTICS: A perennial herb, usually emergent to a height of 10 dm. The rhizome is thick and creeping. Leaves are heart-shaped to lanceolate, and up to 18 cm. long. However, rosettes of submerged, ribbon-like leaves can also be produced. The leaves are long-petioled (petioles averaging 4.5 cm.). The violet-blue flowers (rarely white) are packed into a dense spike. In flower from June to August.

ECOLOGICAL NOTES: Pickerelweed is a nonpersistent emergent found in shallow water (rarely more than 3 feet in depth) or saturated substrates of marshes, bogs, margins of lakes and streams, and Mississippi River backwaters. It often forms large colonies.

SOURCE: Fernald (1970); Gleason and Cronquist (1991); and Voss (1972).