Flowers
The plant flowers in late summer. The purple flowers have yellow markings which may assist in attracting bees for pollination. One bee species known to pollinate the flowers is Dufourea (Halictoides) novaeangliae. Once the plant begins to produce seeds, the stem supporting the infloresence bends to submerse the fruits and seeds. Seeds are dormant at the time of dispersal and will not germinate without stratification for 6-8 weeks.
The flowers of the species are tristylous, meaning the styles of individual plants occur in three different morphs, with most populations containing all three. Leaf shape, which varies considerably across populations, within populations, and even within individuals, has been the source for many taxonomic synonyms. Like many wetland and aquatic plants, the species can reproduce asexually by means of branching rhizomes, and hence can form large clonal stands.
Read more about this topic: Pontederia Cordata
Famous quotes containing the word flowers:
“I got me flowers to straw thy way;
I got me boughs off many a tree;
But thou wast up by break of day,
And brought’st thy sweets along with thee.”
—George Herbert (1593–1633)
“When we locked up the house at night,
We always locked the flowers outside
And cut them off from window light.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“And like a prophetess of May
Strew’d flowers upon the barren way,
Making the wintry world appear
Like one on whom thou smilest, dear.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)