Apium repens (Jacq) Lag. Creeping Marshwort
NOMENCLATURE
Apium: see A. gravolens.
repens: creeping
Marshwort: ref. to habitat.
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
TYPE: slender, perennial. Hel. STEMS: creeping stems, rooting at node.
UMBELS: compound, 4-7 sub= smooth rays, 3cm. Fed- uncle
2-3 x > than rays. Leaf opposed. Hermph.
LEAVES: simple pinnate, 2-11 pair of suborbicular, shallow lobed,
or toothed, sessile lobes 5-14mm.
BRACTS: 3-7, lanceolate to ovate, deflexed. Bracteoles same, < than flrs.
FLOWERS: white. Styles form stylopodium.Fl .7.
FRUIT : 1mm, suborbicular, wider than long. Laterally compressed, smooth. Commisure
narrow. Mericarps with prominent slender ribs. carpophore present. Vittae solitary.
Pedicels 1-2mm. Styles x 2 > as stylopodium. recurved. Stigma a small knob. 2n=16.
HABITAT: old damp meadows, ditches, shallow ponds.
DISTRIBUTION: native. Local. 4 locations in Oxf. often uncertain, due to
close resemblance to A.nodiflorum varieties. Mainly C. Europe.
HYBRIDS: Sometimes of A. nodiflorum x A.repens, where parents grow
together, persists in absence of A. repens. Sterile.
