Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Hydrolea spinosa

Hydrolea quadrivalvis

spiny false fiddleleaf

water-pod
Habit Herbs, erect or decumbent, to 6 dm, unbranched, with short reproductive branches or with branches arising from prostrate stems.
Stems

green to brown, with long, jointed hairs;

thorns 1 or 2 per node, rarely absent, 5–12 × 0.6–1.2 mm.
Leaf

blades lanceolate, 4–10 × 1–2.5 cm, base attenuate to acute, margins entire or serrulate, surfaces hairy, with occasional long trichomes restricted to veins.
Inflorescences

axillary, fasciculate, 1–10-flowered, or on short, leafy branches.
Flowers

sepals lanceolate, 6–10 × 1.5–2.5 mm, with long, jointed hairs;

corolla blue, rarely white, petals 8–11 × 3.5–6 mm;

ovary glabrous;

styles 2, 3.5–5 mm, glabrous.
Capsules

globose, 5.5–7 × 5–7 mm, glabrous.
Seeds

cylindric, 0.6–0.7 × 0.2–0.3 mm.
2n

= 20.

Hydrolea spinosa

Hydrolea quadrivalvis
Phenology Flowering Jul–Sep.
Habitat Pond margins, stream banks and mudflats.
Elevation 30–400 m. (100–1300 ft.)
Distribution
from USDA
Mexico; Central America; South America; Texas; Asia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TN; VA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 3 (1 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

In morphology, Hydrolea quadrivalvis is closest to H. uniflora but differs in having long, jointed hairs on stems and sepals.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 14. FNA vol. 14.
Parent taxa Hydroleaceae > Hydrolea Hydroleaceae > Hydrolea
Sibling taxa
H. corymbosa, H. ovata, H. quadrivalvis, H. uniflora
H. corymbosa, H. ovata, H. spinosa, H. uniflora
Subordinate taxa
H. spinosa var. spinosa
Synonyms Nama spinosa Nama quadrivalvis
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. ed. 2, 1: 328. (1762) Walter: Fl. Carol., 110. (1788)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers