Potamogetonaceae

Fennel pondweed Potamogeton pectinatus, copyright Christian Fischer.

Belongs within: Potamogetonales.

The Potamogetonaceae are a cosmopolitan group of aquatic herbs, often bearing a combination of narrow submerged and broader floating leaves. Members include the cosmopolitan curled pondweed Potamogeton crispus, in which leaves are entirely submerged and have more or less crimped margins (Healy & Edgar 1980).

Characters (from Healy & Edgar 1980): Aquatic perennial herbs of brackish or fresh water. Leaves simple, usually alternate, often dimorphic, submersed ones narrower and more delicate than floating ones; in axil, a delicate membranous stipule, either free or adnate below. Inflorescence a many-flowered spike; peduncle axillary with 0, 1 or 2 bracts at base. Flowers small, green, bisexual, actinomorphic, without bracteoles, segments 4, free, valvate, concave. Stamens 4, on claw of segments; anthers 2-celled, apparently sessile, extrorse. Carpels 4, sessile, free, superior; stigma sessile or nearly so; ovule solitary, strongly curved. Achenes drupe-like when fresh; endocarp stony, splitting by separation of vertically-oriented operculum on outer face.

<==Potamogetonaceae [Potamogetonineae]
    |--Diplanthera wrightii YY22, S00
    |--Althenia YY22
    |--Groenlandia HE80
    |--Potamogetophyllum vernonense Fontaine 1905 CBH93
    `--Potamogeton Linnaeus 1753 ME70
         |  i. s.: P. acutifolius B78
         |         P. alpinus H93
         |           |--P. a. ssp. alpinus H93
         |           `--P. a. ssp. tenuifolius H93
         |         P. amplifolius B97
         |         P. capillaceus V72
         |         P. confervoides V72
         |         P. crispus Linnaeus 1753 HE80
         |         P. diversifolius H93
         |         P. drummondii GK00
         |         P. epihydrus H93
         |           |  i. s.: P. e. var. ramosus V72
         |           |--P. e. ssp. epihydrus H93
         |           `--P. e. ssp. nuttallii H93
         |         P. fluitans C55
         |         P. foliosus H93
         |           |--P. f. var. foliosus H93
         |           |--P. f. var. fibrillosus H93
         |           `--P. f. var. macellus V72
         |         P. friesii V72
         |         P. gramineus CS77
         |         P. hillii V72
         |         P. hybridus B78
         |         P. illinoensis H93
         |         P. indicus M72
         |         P. javanicus B78
         |         P. lateralis V72
         |         P. latifolius H93
         |         P. × longiligulatus [P. strictfolius × P. zosteriformis] V72
         |         P. lucens C55
         |         P. mucronatus S00
         |         P. natans DS04
         |         P. nodosus PP07
         |         P. oakesianus V72
         |         P. obtusifolius [incl. P. compressus] B78
         |         P. octandrus LK14
         |         P. perfoliatus C55
         |         P. polygonifolius ME70
         |         P. praelongus H93
         |         P. pulcher V72
         |         P. pusillus [incl. P. panormitanus] V72
         |           |--P. p. var. pusillus H93
         |           |--P. ‘berchtoldii’ var. lacunatus V72
         |           |--P. ‘berchtoldii’ var. polyphyllus V72
         |           `--P. p. var. tenuissimus [incl. P. berchtoldii] H93
         |         P. richardsonii [=P. perfoliatus var. richardsonii] V72
         |         P. robbinsii H93
         |         P. spirillus V72
         |         P. strictifolius V72
         |         P. tenuicaulis B78
         |         P. tricarinatus LK14
         |         P. vaseyi V72
         |         P. zosterifolius V72
         |         P. zosteriformis H93
         |--P. subg. Potamogeton ME70
         |    |--P. cheesemanii Bennett 1883 ME70 (see below for synonymy)
         |    |--P. ochreatus Raoul 1844 ME70
         |    `--P. suboblongus Hagström 1916 ME70
         `--P. subg. Coleogeton KG01
              |--P. × bottnicus [P. pectinatus × P. vaginatus] KG01
              |--P. filiformis KG01
              |    |--P. f. var. filiformis V72
              |    |--P. f. var. borealis V72
              |    `--P. f. var. macounii V72
              |--P. pectinatus Linnaeus 1753 ME70
              |--P. × suecicus [P. pectinatus × P. filiformis] KG01
              `--P. vaginatus KG01

Potamogeton cheesemanii Bennett 1883 ME70 [incl. P. natans var. australis Kirk ex Bennett 1887 C06, P. cheesemanii f. corymboides Hagström 1916 ME70, P. cheesemanii f. frondosus Hagström 1916 ME70, P. membranaceus Hagström 1916 ME70, P. porrigens Hagström 1916 ME70]

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[B78] Bentham, G. 1878. Flora Australiensis: A description of the plants of the Australian Territory vol. 7. Roxburghiaceae to Filices. L. Reeve & Co.: London.

[B97] Brown, K. M. 1997. Temporal and spatial patterns of abundance in the gastropod assemblage of a macrophyte bed. American Malacological Bulletin 14 (1): 27–33.

[C55] Candolle, A. de. 1855. Géographie Botanique Raisonée: Ou exposition des faits principaux et des lois concernant la distribution géographique des plantes de l’époque actuelle vol. 2. Librairie de Victor Masson: Paris.

[C06] Cheeseman, T. F. 1906. Manual of the New Zealand Flora. John Mackay, Government Printer: Wellington.

[CBH93] Collinson, M. E., M. C. Boulter & P. L. Holmes. 1993. Magnoliophyta (‘Angiospermae’). In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Fossil Record 2 pp. 809–841. Chapman & Hall: London.

[CS77] Cramp, S., & K. E. L. Simmons (eds) 1977. Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palaearctic vol. 1. Ostrich to Ducks. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

[DS04] Davis, J. I., D. W. Stevenson, G. Petersen, O. Seberg, L. M. Campbell, J. V. Freudenstein, D. H. Goldman, C. R. Hardy, F. A. Michelangeli, M. P. Simmons, C. D. Specht, F. Vergara-Silva & M. Gandolfo. 2004. A phylogeny of the monocots, as inferred from rbcL and atpA sequence variation, and a comparison of methods for calculating jackknife and bootstrap values. Systematic Botany 29 (3): 467–510.

[GK00] Gibson, N., & G. J. Keighery. 2000. Flora and vegetation of the Byenup-Muir reserve system, south-west Western Australia. CALMScience 3 (3): 323–402.

[HE80] Healy, A. J., & E. Edgar. 1980. Flora of New Zealand vol. 3. Adventive cyperaceous, petalous and spathaceous monocotyledons. P. D. Hasselberg, Government Printer: Wellington (New Zealand).

[H93] Hickman, J. C. (ed.) 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California. University of California Press: Berkeley (California).

[KG01] King, R. A., R. J. Gornall, C. D. Preston & J. M. Croft. 2001. Molecular confirmation of Potamogeton × bottnicus (P. pectinatus × P. vaginatus, Potamogetonaceae) in Britain. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 135 (1): 67–70.

[LK14] Lyons, M. N., G. J. Keighery, L. A. Gibson & T. Handasyde. 2014. Flora and vegetation communities of selected islands off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 81: 205–244.

[M72] Mitra, S. N. 1972. Observations on the vegetation of the Upper Damodar catchment area. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 69 (1): 17–25.

[PP07] Pandey, R. P., & P. M. Padhye. 2007. Studies on phytodiversity of Arid Machia Safari Park-Kailana in Jodhpur (Rajasthan). Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India 49: 15–78.

[S00] Siddiqi, M. R. 2000. Tylenchida: Parasites of plants and insects 2^nd ed. CABI Publishing: Wallingford (UK).

[V72] Voss, E. G. 1972. Michigan Flora. Part I. Gymnosperms and Monocots. Cranbrook Institute of Science and University of Michigan Herbarium.

[YY22] Yampolsky, C., & H. Yampolsky. 1922. Distribution of sex forms in the phanerogamic flora. Bibliotheca Genetica 3: 1–62.

Last updated: 5 January 2022.