''Sagittaria lancifolia'', the bulltongue arrowhead, is a perennial, monocot plant in the family Alismataceae, genus '' Sagittaria'', with

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

growth patterns. It is

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

to the southeastern United States. It is known from every coastal state from Delaware to Texas. The species is also considered native to Mexico, Central America, the West Indies and northern South America. It has become naturalized on the Island of Java in Indonesia. A common name is "duck potato" because of the large potato-like

corms A corm, bulbo-tuber, or bulbotuber is a short, vertical, swollen underground plant stem that serves as a storage organ that some plants use to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat ( perennation). The word ...

which can form underground.

Description

The plant is conspicuous for its large, lance-shaped leaves which grow up from underground

rhizomes In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

and its showy, white three-petaled flowers which form at the end of long, thick stalks. Each flower has three green sepals, three white or pink-tinged petals, at least six stamens, and

pistil Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...

s which may be in separate flowers. The plant likes to grow in fresh or brackish water and is commonly found in ditches, marshes, swamps and along the shores of lakes and streams. ''Sagittaria lancifolia'' reproduces both asexually through spreading rhizomes and sexually through reproduction of copious achenes, a dry fruit each of which carries a single seed. The achenes are dispersed through animal vectors and through

hydrochory In Spermatophyte plants, seed dispersal is the movement, spread or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their seeds, including both abiotic vectors, ...

(dispersal through wind, water, or gravity). The achenes germinate only under light, and with or without available fluid, but the period of their germination is shorter when they are submersed in water. Temperature is a factor, with 100% germination occurring at . Germination is reduced in anaerobic conditions. Growth is also dependent on temperature.

Sensitivity to in-situ burning of applied crude oil

Louisiana is one of the top five U.S. states in oil production, oil that is piped through marshes in Louisiana to market and sometimes leaks into the marsh land polluting it. Field studies suggest that, although the application and burning of South Louisiana Crude oil on ''Sagittaria l.'' plants in plots of fresh Louisiana marsh land had short term negative effects on the growth rate of ''Sagittaria l.'', over time plant recovery was just as rapid as in the plots where the plants were oiled but not burned. This suggests that allowing a polluted marsh to degrade and recover without burning is a viable option, while burning is a viable option when a rapid recovery is needed on sensitive lands.

Notes

External links

* * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q7399298 lancifolia Plants described in 1759 Aquatic plants Flora of North America Flora of South America Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus