Copy permalink to share
Araceae
Pistia

not marked as a favorite taxon Pistia stratiotes Linnaeus. Common name: Water Lettuce. Habitat: Stagnant or slow-moving waters of rivers, sometimes cultivated in ponds, where it persists for a while (presumably eventually eliminated by cold winters in the more northern parts of our area). Distribution: Native in a wide area across the Paleotropics and Neotropics, including in North America at least peninsular FL; it has been sometimes considered an alien and noxious waterweed in FL but evidence strongly supports its nativity there (Evans 2013). Reported for AR (Serviss & Serviss 2023a). This floating aquatic appeared in the Waccamaw River of SC (downstream from NC) in 1990 and 1991, apparently successfully overwintering (Nelson 1993).

Glossary (beta!)

Origin/Endemic status: Native

Synonymy ⓘ: = Can, ETx1, FNA22, GW1, Il, K4, NcTx, NY, S, S13, Tx, Va, WH3, Spaulding et al (2019); = n/a — C, F, RAB, Tat. Basionym: Pistia stratiotes L. 1753

Links to other floras: = Pistia stratiotes - FNA22

Show in key(s)

Show parent genus | Show parent in key(s)

Wetland Indicator Status:

  • Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain: OBL
  • Eastern Mountains and Piedmont: OBL
  • Great Plains: OBL
  • Midwest: OBL
  • Northcentral & Northeast: OBL

Heliophily ⓘ: 8

Your browser does not support SVGs

Hover over a shape, letter, icon, or arrow on the map for definition or see the legend.

image #2 of Pistia stratiotes© Keith Bradley | Original Image ⭷
image #3 of Pistia stratiotes© Gary P. Fleming | Original Image ⭷
image #4 of Pistia stratiotes© Alan Cressler: Pistia stratiotes, Withlacoochee River, Sumter County, Florida 3 by Alan Cressler source | Original Image ⭷
image #5 of Pistia stratiotes© Keith Bradley | Original Image ⭷

Feedback

See something missing or incorrect about Pistia stratiotes? Let us know here:
  1. Please include your name and if possible, email in case when need to clarify what you wrote.
  2. If you opt out of including email, please be as specific as possible (e.g., which photo is incorrect?)
  3. Please do not submit questions asking to identify plants or about horticultural topics (e.g., how do I control an invasive plant in my garden?). Instead, those questions can be submitted here for the Carolinas region only.
  4. Please do not send us feedback about unkeyed species as this work is ongoing.
  5. Please allow time for flora edits to show in our next data release. We greatly appreciate your feedback but may require extra time to research complicated taxonomic issues.

Horticultural Information

NCBG trait

Intro:

Stems:

Leaves:

Inforescence:

Flowers:

Fruits:

Comments:

Height:

plant sale text:

bloom table text:

description:

stems:

leaves:

inflorescence:

flowers:

fruits:

comments:

cultural notes:

germination code:

native range: pan-tropical



0 unsaved edits on this page.