Aponogeton desertorum Zeyh. ex A.Spreng.

Tubers small, globose, 1-2 cm in diam., brown. Leaves 6-9 per plant, petioles flattened, striate, lamina floating, oblong, 5-17 cm long and 2-6 cm broad, apex obtuse, apiculate, base cordate, thinly coriaceous, often with many immersed oil glands in the epidermis(no submerged leaves seen). Spike bifid, lengthening during anthesis, 3-12 cm long, scape flattened, usually swollen above. Flowers white(in eastern Cape)or yellow, eventually somewhat laxly arranged all around the rhachis, the thick fruiting carpels below and the elongated young apical part giving the spikes their typically tapered appearance; perianth-segments 2, narrow-oblong to narrow-obovate, 2 mm long. Stamens usually 6, filiform, somewhat flattened, 2 mm long, spreading, anthers small, early deciduous, pollen ellipsoid, copious. Carpels 5-3, ovoid, 2 mm long, with a terete style, with the stigmatic ridge short, apical, glutinous, usually dark; the 4-8 ovules usually visible through the transparent walls of the carpels and follicles; seeds cylindrical, 2 mm long, mostly about 6 ripening in each follicle.

It is a subtropical plant. It grows in water. In Southern Africa it grows between 60-1,220 m above sea level. It can grow in arid places.