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

nipplebract arrowhead

guyanese arrowhead

Habit Herbs, perennial, to 112 cm; rhizomes not coarse; stolons absent; corms absent.
Leaves

submersed and emergent;

petiole triangular, 11.5–35 cm;

blade elliptic to ovate, 25–56 cm.

Inflorescences

racemes or panicles, of 4–10 whorls, emersed, 8–25 × 5–36 cm;

peduncles to 76 cm;

bracts connate ¼ total length, lanceolate, 4–8 mm, papillose; fruiting pedicels ascending to spreading, cylindric, 1–4.5 cm.

Flowers

to 3 cm diam.;

sepals appressed to spreading;

filaments slightly dilated, shorter than anthers, glabrous;

pistillate pedicellate, without ring of sterile stamens.

Fruiting

heads 0.7–1 cm diam.;

achenes obovoid, abaxially keeled, 1.2–1.5 × 0.7–1.1 mm, beaked;

faces not tuberculate, wings 1, ± entire, glands 0–1;

beak lateral, erect, 0.1–0.3 mm.

Sagittaria papillosa

Sagittaria guayanensis

Phenology Flowering spring–fall.
Habitat Swamps, marshes, bogs, ditches, borders of lakes
Elevation 0–300 m (0–1000 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AR; LA; OK; TX
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
LA; Mexico; West Indies; tropical regions; Asia; Africa [Introduced, North America]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

The name has often been spelled guyanensis (K. Rataj 1972), which is incorrect. Sagittaria guayanensis was the spelling in the protologue. The holotype was collected by Humboldt and Bonpland in Colombia, not Guyana. The type citation is Colombia: Guainia: in wetlands near the sugar mill of Don Felix Farreras and the city of Bolivar. The type is supposedly at Paris, as with all HBK types; however, we (with the help of Alicia Lourteig) have been unable to locate it. MO has a fragment, however. Rataj did designate a neotype: Suriname, Hostman 870 (TCD!). The fragment at MO takes precedence over this neotype.

Sagittaria guayanensis was divided into two subspecies, S. guayanensis subsp. guayanensis from the Neotropics and subsp. lappula (D. Don) Bogin from the Paleotropics. The two subspecies were separated by the shape and size of the fruit in addition to their distribution. Sagittaria guayanensis subsp. lappula has compressed achenes longer than 2.5 mm, whereas subsp. guayanensis has plump achenes shorter than 2.5 mm (C. Bogin 1955).

Subspecies 2 (1 in the flora).

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

Source FNA vol. 22. FNA vol. 22.
Parent taxa Alismataceae > Sagittaria Alismataceae > Sagittaria
Sibling taxa
S. ambigua, S. australis, S. brevirostra, S. cristata, S. cuneata, S. demersa, S. engelmanniana, S. fasciculata, S. filiformis, S. graminea, S. guayanensis, S. isoetiformis, S. kurziana, S. lancifolia, S. latifolia, S. longiloba, S. montevidensis, S. platyphylla, S. rigida, S. sanfordii, S. secundifolia, S. subulata, S. teres
S. ambigua, S. australis, S. brevirostra, S. cristata, S. cuneata, S. demersa, S. engelmanniana, S. fasciculata, S. filiformis, S. graminea, S. isoetiformis, S. kurziana, S. lancifolia, S. latifolia, S. longiloba, S. montevidensis, S. papillosa, S. platyphylla, S. rigida, S. sanfordii, S. secundifolia, S. subulata, S. teres
Subordinate taxa
S. guayanensis subsp. guayanensis
Name authority Buchenau: Index Crit. Butom. Alism. Juncagin. 27, 44. (1868) Kunth: in A. von Humboldt et al., Nov. Gen. Sp. 1: 250. (1816)
Web links