Pistia

Scientific name -Pistiastratiotes
Common name – water lettuce
Classification
Phylum – Angiospermae
Class – Monocotyledoneae
Order – Alismatales
Family – Araceae
Genus – Pistia
Characteristics
• Pistia is a free floating, frost tender aquatic perennial.
• Leaves have wavy or scalloped margins and are thick light green covered with short hairs and water-repellent, can be upto one foot in length ,leaves are attached to one another at the plant’s base to forma free floating rosette.
•Roots are white to tan , long feathery and hang beneath the rosette of leaves.
•Flowers are inconspicuous borne in a swathe and spadix arrangement. The greenish spacious, aspire-like structure in the centre of the Inflorescence that houses separate female and male flowers, is sheathed by the white spathe, a hairy leaf like bract.
Citation:-https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/greatlakes/FactSheet.aspx?Species_ID=1099