Nymphoides aquatica (J.F. Gmel.) Kuntze

Big Floating Heart; Banana Floating Heart

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Banana Floating Heart is a native perennial in the Buck-Bean family (Menyanthaceae). It is native to the southern third of Alabama. Banana Floating Heart is a floating leaf aquatic plant found in ponds and slow moving streams. It resembles a small Water Lily (Nymphaea). It is a perennial from a rhizome buried in the mud at the pond bottom. Leaves are produced singularly at the terminus of a floating stem. The leaves are entire, ovate to cordate in outline, and split to the petiole. The upper surface of the leaf is green and the lower surface is red-purple. Both the lower surface of the leaf and the stems are rough and pebbly in texture. The flowers are produced in fascicles below the floating leaf. Flowers are held above the water’s surface during anthesis (the period of time when a flower is fully open and functional). Each flower has five white petals and a yellow “eye”. A clump of thick, blunt, elongated tubers develops at the site of the attachment of the flowers. The fruit is a capsule. Banana Floating Heart is similar to, and occurs in the same area as Little Floating Heart (Nymphoides cordata (Elliott) Fernald). Little Floating Heart has smaller leaves that are mottled with purple above. The tubers of Little Floating Heart are also more slender and pointed than those of Banana Floating Heart. Banana Floating Heart is a common pool and aquarium plant. It is widely available from nurseries specializing in aquatic plants. Plants can also be grown from the clusters of tubers. The tubers should not be planted more than 1/3 of their length in the soil or gravel. Banana Floating Heart does best in shallow water (1-3 feet) with plenty of direct sunlight.--A. Diamond

**

Native OBL (NWPL)

**