• Family (Christenhusz et al, 2011) : MARSILEACEAE
• Family (As per The Plant List) : Marsileaceae
• Species : Marsilea minuta
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Marsilea minuta L.
• Collection Nos : KFP 126
• Collector(s) Name : C. J. Saldanha
• Key identification features : Rhizome long, creeping, branched, subterranean, about 30 cm long, upto 2 mm thick, green in aquatic plants, pale or dark brown in terrestrials, overed by whitish, soft, slender hairs sparsely or densely all over; roots borne usually on nodes. Stipes scattered, about 1 m apart, usually green, glabrous or with few hairs as in rhizome. Leaves four, sessile, arranged at the tip of the stipe in clover leaf model, obovate or wedge-shaped; veins distinct above and below, flabellately branched; leaves pale or dark green, glabrous with few hairs; texture thin, soft herbaceous. Sporocarps borne at the nodes in clusters alternately, five per cluster; sporocarps adnate to the peduncle laterally and perpendicularly, more or less bean shaped, black or dark brown, very hard, densely hairy when young; microsporangia and megasporangia enclosed in same sporocarp and covered by gelatinous layer; microspores yellowish-brown, globose; megaspores ovate.
• Habit : Herb-Aquatic
• Native : Tropical Asia; Brazil; Caribbean Islands
• Comments : Very common in ponds, paddy fields and marshy places and damp soil.
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Collection Locality : Bangalore
• Distribution Locality : Bangalore; Dakshina Kannada; Hassan; Mysore; Tumkur
• Floras referred : Fraser-Jenkins, Taxonomic revision of Indian Subcontinental Pteridophytes 2008; Rajagopal & Bhat, Pteridophytic flora of Karnataka State- 1998; Bhaskar & Kushalappa, 2013- Flora of Tumkur District

Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Field Images