POTAMOGETON - PONDWEED

Family: Potamogetonaceae ^[E-flora]

• "Habit: Annual, perennial herb, rhizomed or not, tubers 0, winter buds generally 0."
• "Stem: simple or branched, cylindric to compressed; nodal glands present or 0."
• "Leaf: submersed, also floating or not, generally flat, generally green, entire to finely serrate; submersed sessile or not, linear to round, tip rounded to acuminate, veins 1--35; floating 0 or generally petioled, elliptic to ovate, leathery; stipules of submersed leaves free from blade base or fused to it < 1/2 stipule length."
• "Inflorescence: generally floating to emergent; peduncle stiff. Fruit: generally beaked, abaxially with 0 or 1 central keel, 0 or 2 lateral, sometimes lower keels, sides concave to convex."
• "Species In Genus: +- 88 species: generally temperate northern hemisphere. Etymology: (Greek: river neighbor, from aquatic habitat) Note: Other taxa in TJM (1993) moved to Stuckenia." ^[Jepson]

Local Species;

• Potamogeton alpinus - northern pondweed ^[E-flora]
• Potamogeton amplifolius - large-leaved pondweed ^[E-flora]
• Potamogeton crispus - curled pondweed ^[E-flora]
• Potamogeton epihydrus - ribbon-leaf pondweed ^[E-flora]
• Potamogeton foliosus - closed-leaved pondweed ^[E-flora]
• Potamogeton friesii - flat-stalked pondweed ^[E-flora]
• Potamogeton gramineus - grass-leaved pondweed ^[E-flora]
• Potamogeton natans - floating-leaved pondweed ^[E-flora]
• Potamogeton obtusifolius - blunt-leaved pondweed ^[E-flora]
• Potamogeton praelongus - long-stalked pondweed ^[E-flora]
• Potamogeton pusillus - small pondweed ^[E-flora]
• Potamogeton richardsonii - Richardson's pondweed ^[E-flora]
• Potamogeton robbinsii - Robbin's pondweed ^[E-flora]
• Potamogeton zosteriformis - eel-grass pondweed ^[E-flora]

Curled Pondweed - Potamogeton crispus

Origin Status: Exotic ^[E-flora]

"Potamogeton crispus is a PERENNIAL at a fast rate. It is in flower from May to October, and the seeds ripen from Jun to October. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs)
Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils and can grow in very alkaline and saline soils.
It cannot grow in the shade. It can grow in water." ^[PFAF]

"General: Perennial, aquatic herb from fibrous roots; stems compressed, branched, up to 150 cm long." ^{[IFBC-E-flora]}
"Leaves: All submersed, narrowly oblong with parallel sides, 1-10 cm long, 0.4-1 cm wide, with 9 to 35 veins, attached at the nodes, the tips rounded, the bases rounded and toothed, the margins wavy, with tiny teeth, dark green and crispy, stipules inconspicuous, 0.5 cm long." ^{[IFBC-E-flora]}
"Flowers: Inflorescence spikelike, the spikes 2.5-4 cm long, with 3 to 5 whorls of flowers, the stalks thin." ^{[IFBC-E-flora]}
"Fruits: Achenes, lanceolate, 5-6 mm long (including the beaks), 2-2.3 mm wide, the beaks 2-3 mm long, prominent, pointed, the keels well-developed, toothed." ^{[IFBC-E-flora]}
"Notes: Stem anatomical characters Interlacunar and subepidermal bundles absent, pseudohypodermis 1 cell thick, endodermis of O-cells." ^{[IFBC-E-flora]}

Habitat / Range
"Nutrient rich lakes, ponds and sloughs in the lowland and steppe zones; common in S BC south of 50 degrees N; introduced from Eurasia." ^{[IFBC-E-flora]}
"Lakes, ponds, streams, canals etc[17]. Found in fresh and in saline water[235]. Europe, including Britain, to Asia." ^[PFAF]

Edible Uses

• Young Leaves
• "Young leaves - cooked[105, 177, 179]. ^[PFAF] China: leaves and roots are eaten. ^[EMNMPV9]
  
• Root
• "Root[179]. No more details are given." ^[PFAF]

Remediation

• Potamogeton crispus - Translocated - Pb and Zn. Metabolic adaptation - Ag and Cd. ^[SoilBio-30]
• Potamogeton crispus - potential for removing/accumulating Phenol ^{[Dhir PRAPECU]}
• Potamogeton crispus - a high ability to remove TNT from water and recommended for phytoremediation of explosives contaminated water around army ammunition plants. Also useful for RDX remediation. ^{[Ramsden BMDHP]}

Propagation
"Seed - we have no information for this species but suggest sowing the seed in a pot that is standing in its own depth of water in a greenhouse as soon as the seed is ripe if this is possible. Stored seed is likely to have a short viability. Prick out the seedlings when they are large enough to handle and increase the depth of water around the pot until the plants are covered by a few centimetres of water. Grow the plants on in a sunny position in the greenhouse for their first winter, increasing the depth of water as the plants grow larger. Plant them out into their permanent positions in early summer. Division in spring[56]. Cuttings of erect shoots in the growing season[56]." ^[PFAF]

Cultivation
"A submerged aquatic plant that can be used as an oxygenator of ponds[1]. It is best given a loam based medium in full sun[200]. It prefers alkaline water[200]. Prefers cool water[188]. A fast growing plant in need of constant checking to make sure it does not overrun the pond[200]. Hybridizes freely with other members of this genus, the resulting progeny is usually sterile[200]." ^[PFAF]

Synonyms
P. serratus. ^[PFAF]

Uses of Other Potamogeton Sp.

Additional Notes

• Potamogeton natans L. [Floating pondweed.] "This is much used in combination with other medicines." ^{[HuronSmith Winnebago]}

allelopathic: "Another floating leaved macrophyte with allelopathic potential is the pondweed Potamogeton natans. This species was found to contain diterpene lactones with antialgal activity (Cangiano et al. 2001; Della Greca et al. 2001). Most submersed pondweeds, however, seem to exhibit no allelopathic activity, such as P. crispus (Nakai et al. 1999), P. perfoliatus and P. pectinatus (Körner and Nicklisch, 2002)." ^{[Reigosa alleleopathy]}

Phytochemistry: Eschscholtzxanthin found in Potamogeton spp. ^{[Connolly DT]}

Remediation

• Potamogeton spp. showed capacity for removing organochlorine compounds including PCBs. It also showed capacity of treating groundwater contaminated with explosives at army ammunition plants located at Milan. ^{[Dhir PRAPECU]}
• Potamogeton natans - Studied for the phytoremediation of toxic elements from wetlands; Zn, Cu, Cd, Pb [Source Missing]
• Increasing salinity reduced metal accumulation (Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb) in submersed plants Elodea canadensis and Potamogeton natans L. (Fritioff et al. 2005). ^[Phytorem1]
• Potamogeton pusillus - Metabolic adaptation - Cu. ^[SoilBio-30]
• Potamogeton used for phytofiltration via root accumulation in waste/ground water for Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, Some radionuclide such as Cs, Sr, U and organic compounds ^{[Gupta RCRTP]}
• In New Zealand lakes, aquatic plants such as Isoetes and Chara were stressed by UV radiation, but not Potamogeton (Rae et al. 2001).^{[Northcote FF]}

References

1. [E-flora] http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Potamogeton%20crispus&redblue=Both&lifeform=7, Accessed Feb 8, 2015
2. [Jepson] C. Barre Hellquist, Robert F. Thorne & Robert R. Haynes 2012, Potamogeton, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=10165, accessed on November 23, 2018.
3. [PFAF] http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Potamogeton+crispus, Accessed Feb 8, 2015