Marsilea minuta (Flora of the WAP complex

Marsilea minuta

Description ⁴

Floating form: stipe up to 26 cm long, slender, hairless. Leaflets up to 15-28 × 10-29 mm, broadly obovate, outer margin rounded, entire to shallowly irregular, hairless, brownish suberous streaks between the veins of the lower surface. Dry land form: stipe up to 13 (15) cm long. Leaflets up to 6-13 × 4-10 mm, obovate, outer margins subentire to shallowly incised, slightly hairy. Sporocarps: clustered in groups of 2-5, size variable, average 3-4 × 2.4-3 mm, 0.8-1.4 mm thick, dark brown to almost matt black, broadly oblong-elliptic in lateral view, outer side rounded, vertical cross-section elliptic; densely appressed hairy when young becoming quite hairless with age; lower and upper tooth prominent, upper tooth as long as or slightly longer than lower tooth; pedicels 3-7 mm long, cylindrical, stout, erect or gently curved upwards, free or branching once, arising from the leaf axil or the base of the stipe, sometimes one above the other.

General habitat ⁵

"Habitat and Ecology: It is found in shallow pools, at the edges of rivers, canals and ditches and in rice fields. It is most abundant in temporarily flooded places where it may form large and dense colonies which can become locally dominant. It tolerates considerable organic pollution and sporocarps develops as the water recedes (Cook 1996). Systems: Freshwater List of Habitats: 5, 5.1, 5.7"