Clades:
Cabombaceae.
Region: South Americ, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela; introduced to Bangladesh and Malaysia.
Habitat: fresh standing or flowing water, lakes, ponds, floodplains, lakes, creeks, swamps, rivers with slight currents; prefers bright light conditions.
Use: aquarium plant, difficult to cultivate.
BotanyType: herb: rhizomatous; perennial; aquatic.
Stems: green to red; up to 1.5 m long.
Leaves: submerged and floating; finely divided, reniform; 4–5 cm long, and 6 cm wide; submerged ons are trichotomously branched; floating ones are orbicular to broadly elliptic, produced towards the apex of the shoot; entire; 5 to 20 mm long, and 4 to 15 mm wide; petiole is 9 to 55 mm long.
flowers: golden yellow; solitary; bisexual; diurnal, incompletely protogynous; nectariferous; 5 to 11 mm wide; extends beyond the water surface; sepals are 3 to 4 mm long, 1 to 2 mm wide sepals; androecium consists of 3 to 6 bright yellow stamens, with 2 to 4 mm long filaments; gynoecium has 2 to 4 carpels.
Pollination: by bees, wasps, flies.
Pollen: very large; elongate; monosulcate; 70 to 90 μm long, and 40 to 50 μm wide
Fruit: single seed; develops underwater.
Seed: oval; black; 2 to 4 mm long, 1 to 3 mm wide.
Chromosome count: 2n = 52; chloroplast is 159487 bp long.