Limnophila sessiliflora (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Limnophila sessiliflora Blume

Family: Scrophulariaceae

Synonyms

• Ambulia sessiliflora (Vahl) Baill. ex Wettst.,
• Hottonia sessiliflora Vahl,
• Stemodia sessiliflora (Blume) F. v. Muell.

Distribution

From India and Nepal to Burma (Myanmar), Vietnam, western China, North Korea, Japan, and the Mariana Islands; within the Malesian region in Peninsular Malaysia, Java, and Borneo.

Uses

Suitable for improving the water quality of fish ponds by capturing floating mud particles.

Observations

• Amphibious perennial plant, submerged at first but growing out to about 20 cm above the water surface.
• Leaves on aerial stem verticillate, elliptical-lanceolate, 4-12(-20) mm long, entire to serrate or variously lacerate or dissected.
• Flowers solitary, axillary, sessile or subsessile; bracteoles absent or minute; calyx tubular, 5-lobed; corolla 2-lipped, (5-)8-10.5 mm long, blue, violet to purple, lower lip 3-lobed.
• Fruit a capsule with 4 bifid valves.

L. sessiliflora is locally common in shallow ponds, swamps and lakes usually with a muddy bottom, up to 1000 m altitude.

Selected sources

• Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr., R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Wolters-Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. 647, 641, 761 pp.
• Flore du Cambodge, du Laos et du Viêt-nam [Flora of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam] (various editors), 1960-. Volume 1-. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Laboratoire de Phanérogamie, Paris, France.
• Heyne, K., 1950. De nuttige planten van Indonesië [The useful plants of Indonesia]. 3rd Edition. 2 volumes. W. van Hoeve, the Hague, the Netherlands/Bandung, Indonesia. 261, 1450 pp.
• Philcox, D., 1970. A taxonomic revision of the genus Limnophila R. Br. (Scrophulariaceae). Kew Bulletin 24: 101-170.

Authors

• M.S.M. Sosef & L.J.G. van der Maesen