Food Plants International - Plant Fact Sheets Monochoria vaginalis

Edible: Leaves, Flowers, Tubers, Vegetable, Stem, Rhizome, Root

A plant which grows in water attached to the mud. It keeps growing from year to year. The stems are 5 cm long. The plant can grow to 35 cm tall. The lower leaf is 2.5-11 cm long by 0.4-7.5 cm wide. The leaves are sword shaped to broadly oval. The leaf stalk is fleshy and 5-70 cm long. The stem leaf is similar to the lower leaf. The flower stalk is 12-35 cm long. The flower cluster is 1.5-5 cm long and dense bearing 1-20 flowers. The flowers are 0.9-1.8 cm long and blue. The fruit is a capsule 1 cm across and round but flattened at the top. The seeds are oval and about 1 mm across.

Now Pontederia vaginalis. 

A tropical plant. It needs a sunny position for flowering. It occurs in slow moving streams and swamps. It grows in wetlands. It grows to 1550 m altitude. It is very frost sensitive. It is native to Australia and Asia. It is often in rice fields. It suits acid soils. In Sichuan.

Common Names: Oval-leaf monochoria, Ajnai, An mu, Bakbaklung, Beda, Bengok, Bhat meteka, Bia bia, Biga-bigaan, Bilagut, Birabiraan, Cachiee, Chrach, Dhape jhar, Duck tongue, Duke's tongue, Echeng lembut, Echeng leutik, Echeng padi, Ehin, Etjeng padi, Gabing uwak, Gai jiu, Indivar, Kadauk-sat, Kakapola, Karinkoovalam, Kelayar, Khakhiat, Lestalesan, Lochkor ara, Nanka, Ninlabon, Nirkancha, Nukha, Oval-leaf-pondweed, Pa hen, Pak kha khied, Panikasu, Phak e-hin, Phak khiat, Pickerel-weed, Rau choc, Sadom, Saklong, Wewehan, Ya she cao, Yan re miao

Synonyms:

Pontederia vaginalis N. L. Burman;
Boottia mairei H. Léveillé;
Monochoria linearis (Hasskarl) Miquel;
Monochoria ovata Kunth;
Monochoria plantaginea Kunth;
Monochoria vaginalis var. pauciflora (Blume) Merrill;
Monochoria vaginalis var. plantaginea (Roxburgh) Solms;
Pontederia linearis Hasskarl;
Pontederia ovata Hooker & Arnott (1837), not Lin-naeus(1753);
Pontederia pauciflora Blume;
Pontederia plantaginea Roxburgh;