Aquarius cylindricus (Rataj) Christenh. & Byng

Aquarius cylindricus (Rataj) Christenh. & Byng

DE

Basionym : Echinodorus cylindricus Rataj

Occurrence:

States of Mato Grosso do Sul and Rondônia in Brazil.

Ecology

Grows in the backwaters of rivers (Wanke 1999). At an altitude of approx. 100m.

Morphology General habit

Perennial, from rhizomes, glabrous, up to 130 cm, rhizomes up to 7 cm long, 3 cm diam. Leaves emersed, with bluish-green wax coating, leaf blade lanceolate to elliptic, 5 - 7-veined, 15 - 35 cm long, 4 - 10 cm wide, pellucid markings absent, apex acute, base attenuated, petiole round, 14 - 40 cm long, c. 5 mm wide, base with sheath up to 14 cm long

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Fruit oblanceoloid, 5-ribbed, keeled, glandular, 3 mm long and 1 mm wide, glands 2, separated by ribs, beak end, erect, c. 0.7 mm.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Inflorescence racemes or rarely branching in the lowermost whorl, 4 - 13 whorls, each 6 - 9-flowered, erect, protruding leaves, non-propagative, to 40 cm long, c. 4 cm wide, rachis teret, pedicels round, to 80 cm long, 7 mm diam, bracts free, coarse, deltoid, 0.9 - 1.9 cm long and 5 - 8 mm wide, 18 - 30-veined, apex pointed, pedicels spreading into flower and fruit, 0.8 - 1 cm long, 1 mm diam. flowers c. 3.5 cm diam, sepals erect, 25 - 30-veined, c. 6 mm long and c. 4 mm wide, veins without papillae, petals spreading, without claws, overlapping, c. 25 mm long and c. 18 mm wide, stamens 24 - 30, anthers many-sided, c. 2 mm long, filaments c. 2.5 mm long, carpels numerous

Note

Rataj (1975) described this species, but later (Rataj 2004) made it a conspecific with Echinodorus glaucus. However, consistent differences in leaf and inflorescence morphology are considered sufficient to accept two species, although molecular data for this taxon were not available for Lehtonen & Myllys (2008) and the molecular differences between E. glaucus and E. cylindricus are not known.

Phenology

Flowering and fruiting from November to April

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  Echinodorus cylindricus Rataj
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  Echinodorus cylindricus Rataj