水芹菜

植物簡介

A perennial aquatic herbaceous plant that spreads with a creeping habit, spreading by stolons (= lateral stems growing horizontally at ground level, rooting at the nodes and producing new plants from its buds). The dimensions of the plant are very variable, with various forms having been described, all connected by intermediate forms. Red-leaved forms exist in the wild, which are easily confused with poisonous related species. Pinnate to tripinnate compound leaves are alternate on the stem with petioles up to 12 cm long, each sheathed over most of its length. Leaf blades are oblong to ovate in shape, margins serrate or entire. Dark green and dull above, the surface beneath is lighter-coloured beneath with transparent nerves. Inflorescence a compound many-flowered umbel (= an inflorescence in which flower stalks arise from the same point on the inflorescence stalk), terminal and positioned opposite the leaves. Flowers small and white, said to give off a wine-like fragrance, which is sometimes undetectable. Fruit a schizocarp (= a dry indehiscent fruit, which splits into separate one-seeded segments at maturity).