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Perennial herb, hydrophyte, 0.2-0.5 m high; rooting in mud or free-floating, roots many, long and feathery in floating plants. Leaves dimorphous; aerial ones obovate, spathulate or lanceolate, emergent with swollen, long petioles, orbicular; submerged ones linear, with petioles sheathing stems, shortly stipulate. Inflorescence an 8-flowered showy spike, raised above leaves. Perianth blue or mauve, funnel-shaped; tube curved; lobes 6, subequal. Stamens dimorphous; lower 3 exserted, with glandular-hairy filaments. Ovary ovoid; ovules many; style in sthn Afr. plants 25 mm long, glandular-hairy; stigma globose, glandular-lamellate. Flowering time Dec.-Feb. Fruit a 3-locular capsule, splitting longitudinally, becoming mucilaginous and disintegrating in water when ripe; seed apomictic, rarely produced, terete, truncate, 12-ribbed, rarely germinating.
Perennial, aquatic herb, rooting in mud or free-floating; 100-200 mm high but up to 1 m when growing in dense mats. Roots many, long and feathery in floating plants. Leaves dimorphous; emergent ones with swollen, long petioles; blade obovate, orbicular, spathulate or narrowly ovate; submerged leaves alternate, blade linear with petiole sheathing stem, shortly stipulate. Flowers: in well-developed spikes, 8-10-flowered or these reduced to 1 or 2 flowers; stamens 3 + 3, upper included, lower exserted; perianth ± 50 mm in diameter, funnel-shaped with a somewhat curved tube, lobes 6, subequal, spreading, blue or mauve, upper segment with a prominent dark blue, yellow-centred patch; Nov.-Apr. Fruit a spindle-shaped capsule, covered with perianth withering, but not falling off. Seeds many, small, ovoid, finely ribbed.
Perennial, aquatic herb, free-floating or rooted in mud, up to 0.8 m high. Leaves uniform, clustered, emergent, with a spade-shaped lamina and swollen petiole. Stamens 6, 3 short and 3 long. Ovary 3-locular. Capsule many-seeded. Flowers blue.
Free-floating aquatic, mostly 10-30 cm, with feathery roots, forming dense mats. Leaves leathery, suborbicular with inflated petioles. Flowers in a cylindrical spike, pale blue to mauve with yellow and purple blotch on upper tepal.
