Freely branched, Ā±fibrous-rooted annual or perennial 3-20 dm, softly spreading-hairy throughout, or the lvs subglabrous; lvs alternate, lanceolate or narrowly elliptic or elliptic-oblanceolate, mostly 5-15 × 1-3 cm, tapering to a sessile or shortly petiolar base; fls 5(6)-merous, evidently short-pedicellate; ovary slender, angular, 10-15 mm; pet 5-10 mm; stamens 10(12); anthers 1 mm; fr subcylindric, 10-12-nerved, 3-4 cm; seeds uniseriate in each locule, loose in the horseshoe-shaped endocarp; 2n=32. Swamps, ditches, and pond-margins; tropical Amer., n. to se. U.S., and in the Mississippi Valley to w. Ky. June-Sept. (Jussiaea l.)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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