Crested Floating Heart
Nymphoides cristata
Summary 6
Nymphoides hydrophylla (crested floatingheart, white water snowflake, white snowflake) is an aquatic plant of the family Menyanthaceae native to tropical Asia. It has cordate floating leaves that support a lax inflorescence of dainty white flowers with fringed petal margins. Its slim stem (spear) is edible, and is used as vegetable in Taiwan, mostly produced at Meinong District, Kaohsiung.
Description 7
Stems 10-30 cm, rooting from nodes. Leaves few per node; petiole 4-10 cm, slender; leaf blade cordate, 1-6 × 1-4(-5) cm, submembranous, veins indistinct. Flowers 2-10 per node, 5merous, homostylous. Pedicel 2-6 cm, slender. Calyx 4-5 mm, lobed to near base; lobes narrowly oblong, apex acute. Corolla white, campanulate, 7-8 mm, lobed to middle, tube 4-5 mm; lobes 3-4 mm, margin laciniate, apex emarginate. Filaments absent; anthers triangular, ca. 1 mm. Style very short. Capsules globose, ca. 3 mm in diam., 6-10- seeded. Seeds brown, globose, ca. 1 mm in diam.; seed coat spinescent. Fl. and fr. Aug-Sep.
General habitat 8
"Habitat and Ecology: It is a annual sometimes perennial. Deeply rooted in soil. Shallow freshwater ponds and slowly flowing water (Cook 1996). Systems: Freshwater List of Habitats: 15, 15.1, 15.2"
Sources and Credits
- (c) Mary Keim, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/38514062@N03/6181536431/
- (c) Self-made, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Nymphoides_hydrophylla.jpg
- (c) Ito Y, Barfod A, some rights reserved (CC BY), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Nymphoides_hydrophylla_in_Myanmar.jpg
- (c) Quinn Dombrowski, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/3784240105/
- (c) Quinn Dombrowski, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/3784240205/
- (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymphoides_cristata
- (c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/5001565
- (c) India Biodiversity Portal, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://eol.org/data_objects/26323388
More Info
- iNat taxon page
- Biodiversity Heritage Library
- BOLD Systems BIN search
- eFloras.org
- Flora of North America (beta)
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
- HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
- IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
- NatureServe Explorer 2.0
- SEINet Symbiota portals
- Tropicos
- USDA PLANTS database
- World Flora Online
