Commemorating Giuliano Pontedera (1688–1757), Professor of Botany at Padua.

Perennial herbs with submerged, floating or creeping stems. Leaves floating, submerged or emergent, linear or stalked. Flowers in a spike, blue; summer. Perianth of 2 lips, each with 3 lobes. Stamens 6. Fruit a nutlet.

Grown for the strong foliage and spikes of blue flowers.

Division, cuttings or seed.

P. cordata has an edible 1-seeded fruit.

Flowers 2-lipped with each lip having 3 lobes, the lowermost more deeply cut.

6 species from North and South America and Caribbean. Australia has 1 naturalised species.

Lowden (1973).

Source: Spencer, R. (2005). Pontederiaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.