Nymphoides cristata (Roxb) Kuntze A...

Nymphoides cristata (Roxb) Kuntze A late ADVENTIVE EXPANDING AS A scourge PLANT IN FLORIDA-First reported as an introduction to a recently made known World flora at the 61st annual meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists (Burk 2000) the Asian aquatic, Nymphoides cristata (Roxb) Kuntze has since been rest in additional Florida locations and continues to quick in emergencies management problems where it flash on the minds The purpose of this note is to document its in every one's mouth distribution in Florida, provide diagnostic characters separating it from other Nymphoides species erect in North America, and review visions for its management as an invasive plant. Distribution

In Asia, Nymphoides cristata ranges from India (Clarke 1885) and Sri Lanka (Cramer 1981) to Taiwan (Kuo 1978) and northward into China as far as Jiangsu Province (Ho Tingnung and Ornduff 1995) It is not known to offer in Japan (Ohwi 1965). Nor has it been recorded elsewhere for the novel World to my knowledge (eg VAST 1999 Gray Index 2000) For many years it has been a minor ultimate part of the aquarium and water garden trade in the United States and elsewhere (eg Muhlberg 1982 Slocum 1988) It has also extended been considered a common rice field weed in its native range (Cook 1974 Rataj and Horeman 1977)

At first glance, a small plant sample received from southwest Florida in 1996 resembl Nymphoides cordata (Elf) Fern a native of eastern North America known in Florida and nothing else from a few northern counties; the sample definitely differed from the for the use of all native "banana lily" of Florida, Nymphoides aquatica (Walt.) Kuntze an endemic of the Atlantic and opening Coastal Plain (Dress 1954). Further investigation of unimpaired flowering material, herbarium specimens (FLAS, FSU FTG MO USF), and the literature, made the plant's identification clear. With the following alerting of Florida's network of aquatic resource managers, other incidents began to emerge.

Besides occurring in the originally documented location of a residential-subdivision lake (an artificial basin) near Naples, Nymphoides cristata make go rounded up in nearby canals and another nearby subdivision lake (1998 2001) apparently spreading via waterway connections, and in an urbanized tributary of Phillippi inlet which runs through the City of Sarasota forward the west coast approximately 160 km north of Naples. by the agency of 1999, the species was also identified from canals in the Wellington and Lake Worth areas of Palm Beach shire southeast Florida. Since then, it has been raise in two lakes, Fairview and Osceola, in the Orlando area and in an additional canal classification in West Palm Beach. In southeast Florida, the species may have been view from aboveed for several years on the assumption it was N aquatics (Dan Thayer, southern Florida Water Management District, 2000 bys comm.). A 1997 collection (Anderson 17865) from a cypres swamp in leeward County in southwest Florida, originally identified as an out-of-range N cordata, has since been re-determined as N cristata. The near distribution suggests that the scattered populations likely show multiple introductions, quite possibly from dumping of cultivated plants.

Representative specimens. COLLIER COUNTY: SE of Naples, Naples Manor subdivision, dominant in Horseshoe Lake, 11 June 1996 J Smith sn (FSU) just E of Naples, everyday in South Florida Water Management District Canal along Airport-Pulling Rd N of of gold Gate Pkwy., 19 April 2000 K C Burk 1175 (FSU); lee-side COUNTY: Flint Pen Swamp, NE of Bonita Springs, in standing water at center of cypres dome, 25 June 1997 L C Anderson 17865 (FSU); ORANGE COUNTY: City of Winter Park, visit often near canoe launch in Lake Osceola, 15 June 2001 K C Burk 1203 (FLAS, FSU USF), City of Winter Park, frequent in small cove of Lake Fairview, 12 October 2000 E Harris sn (FSU) 15 June 2001 K C Burk 1204 (FSU); PALM BEACH COUNTY: N of Wellington, Loxahatchee woods Water Control District, Canal D and adjoining canals, 31 August 1999 K C Burk 1162 (FSU FTG) Wellington, Acme Improvement District canal near entrance to The Landings subdivision, 31 August 1999 K C Burk 1163 (FLAS, FSU FTG USF), N margin City of Lake Worth, often met with in South Florida Water Management District Canal C-51 17 June 2001 K C Burk 1206 (FSU) Royal Palm Beach, Indian Trail Improvement District canals, 25 July 2001 V Vandiver sn (FSU); SARASOTA COUNTY: s side of Sarasota, Red Bug fen N and S of Proctor Rd 5 July 1999 M Wilson sn (FSU)

Distinctive characters

Fresh material of Nymphoides cristata (Figure la) is easily distinguished from the other 40 or for a like reason species in the genus worldwide from the structure of its white petal lobes. Each lobe bears an place upright longitudinal fold of petal tissue along the upper side of the midvein, a "crest" However, the delicate and small (often

Nymphoides species are truthful aquatics, usually rooted in the substrate of shallow waters still also occasionally found free-floating as small vegetative propagules with a not many leaves subtended by bundles of tuberous lower parts Rooted plants may have a small in number submersed leaves, but most leaf blades float forward the water surface, with relatively short petioles arising from inconspicuous nodes of slight elongated, greenish, petiole-like branches that float upward from a rhizome or stolon. In principally species, clusters of flowers come to one's mind at the distal branch node, their moderate pedicels carrying the blooms to the water surface at anthesis and bending downward again with maturing fruits. tie in a bundles of thickened roots often arise at the same node. The flowers are five-parted, with corollas white, white with golden throats, or yellow; sexual organs of the flowers existing an array of breeding strategies within the genus, from homostylous self-compatibility to distyly to dioecy (Ornduff 1970) Our brace native species, N. aquatics and N cordata, are dioecious (Ornduff 1966) Nymphoides cristata is considered possibly subdioecious in part of its range (Nair 1975 Ornduff 1970) Flowers from Florida plants of N cristata appear bisexual, with occasional production of se seen within a small in number populations.