Sagittaria guayanensis (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Sagittaria guayanensis Kunth subsp. lappula (D. Don) Bogin

Family: Alismataceae

Synonyms

• Lophiocarpus guayanensis (Kunth) Micheli,
• Sagittaria cordifolia Roxb.,
• S. lappula D. Don.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: keladi air, kelipok padang (Indonesian), enceng (Sundanese)
• Malaysia: keladi air, kelipok padang (Peninsular).

Distribution

Tropical Africa and South-East Asia to East Asia (including Taiwan); in the Malesian region in Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi.

Uses

Ploughed in as a green manure in rice fields. The leaves are sometimes used to feed pigs.

Observations

• Laticiferous perennial freshwater plant.
• Leaves floating, in a rosette, ovate with a deeply cordate base; petiole sheathing.
• Inflorescence a raceme with 2-6 whorls of 2-3 flowers, the lower 1-4 whorls with bisexual flowers, the upper whorls with male ones.
• Flowers 3-merous, with closely appressed sepals; petals white with a yellowish base; carpels many.
• Fruit an elliptical achene, with a broad, bluntly spiny crest.

S. guayanensis often occurs gregariously in ditches and wet rice fields, up to 1000 m altitude. Subsp. lappula is the only one occurring in South-East Asia; subsp. guayanensis is found in tropical America. The plants rapidly reappear as a weed after ploughing and may become troublesome. Manual removal just before flowering is recommended.

Selected sources

• Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. 2nd Edition. 2 volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2444 pp.
• Flora Malesiana (various editors), 1950-. Series 1. Volume 1, 4-. Kluwer, Dordrecht & Flora Malesiana Foundation, Leiden, the Netherlands.
• Soerjani, M., Kostermans, A.J.G.H. & Tjitrosoepomo, G., 1987. Weeds of rice in Indonesia. Balai Pustaka, Jakarta, Indonesia. 716 pp.
• Wealth of India (various editors), 1948-1976. A dictionary of Indian raw materials and industrial products: raw materials. 11 volumes. Publications and Information Directorate, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, India. 4441 pp.

Authors

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