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Aponogeton distachyos

Aponogeton distachyos: Plant
Photo by Ken Fern. High resolution version

Common name:	Water Hawthorn	Family:	Aponogetonaceae
Author:	L.f.	Botanical references:	200
Synonyms:
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	S. Africa. Occasionally naturalized in Britain[17].
Habitat:	Pond margins in water 15 - 60cm deep[1].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	2	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	0

Other Possible Synonyms:	From various places across the web, may not be correct. See below.
	A. distachyus[H]
Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Cape Pondweed [H,P], Cape-pondweed [B], Water Hawthorn [H],
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Najadales. Cape-pondweed family

Physical Characteristics

Perennial. It is hardy to zone 9 and is not frost tender. It is in flower from April to October. The scented flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs). We rate it 2/5 for edibility and 0/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires wet soil and can grow in water.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Pond, Bog Garden.

Edible Uses

Flowers; Root; Stem.

Tuber - roasted[17, 105]. Starchy[183]. Considered to be a great delicacy[2].
Flowering spike - pickled or used as a spinach or asparagus substitute[2, 17, 46, 166, 142, 177, 183].
The young shoots are used as an asparagus substitute[142, 177].
The flowers are used as a flavouring[56].

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

None known

Other Uses

None known

Cultivation details

A water plant, growing in water 15 - 60cm deep. it can also grow in wet soil but is then very restricted[56]. It requires a rich soil[56].
The tubers are not winter hardy[56]. Another report says that the plants are hardy in the milder areas of Britain[166]. They have withstood a fairly severe winter in &ndndndnd, when the ponds had thick ice 30cm or more deep, with very little damage[K].
A very ornamental plant[1], the flowers have a hawthorn-like scent[245].

Propagation

Seed - best sown in a pot as soon as it is ripe and kept emmersed in 3cm of water. The seed can also be stored in water and sown in spring[134]. It usually germinates in 1 - 2 months at 20°c[134]. When large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in just covered in water in a greenhouse for their first winter. Plant them out in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts.
Division can be carried out at any time in the growing season, though mid to late spring is probably best. The divisions can be planted straight out into their permanent positions.

Scent

Flowers: Fresh: The flowers have a hawthorn-like scent.

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

PFAF Web Pages

This plant is mentioned in the following web pages

The Edible Pond and Bog Garden

Web References

[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

References for Aponogeton distachyus (a possible synonym).

[H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database

References for the family Aponogetonaceae.

To be included in the Flora of China.

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[K] Ken Fern
Notes from observations, tasting etc at Plants For A Future and on field trips.

[1] F. Chittendon. RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 Oxford University Press 1951
Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaces in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [200]).

[2] Hedrick. U. P. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications 1972 ISBN 0-486-20459-6
Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.

[17] Clapham, Tootin and Warburg. Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press 1962
A very comprehensive flora, the standard reference book but it has no pictures.

[46] Uphof. J. C. Th. Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim 1959
An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.

[56] Muhlberg. H. Complete Guide to Water Plants. E. P. Publishing Ltd. 1982 ISBN 0-7158-0789-7
Deals with a wide range of plants for temperate areas (and indoor aquaria) with quite a lot of information on cultivation techniques.

[105] Tanaka. T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World. Keigaku Publishing 1976
The most comprehensive guide to edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.

[134] Rice. G. (Editor) Growing from Seed. Volume 2. Thompson and Morgan. 1988
Very readable magazine with lots of information on propagation. An interesting article on Ensete ventricosum.

[142] Brouk. B. Plants Consumed by Man. Academic Press 1975 ISBN 0-12-136450-x
Readable but not very comprehensive.

[166] Taylor. J. The Milder Garden. Dent 1990
A good book on plants that you didn't know could be grown outdoors in Britain.

[177] Kunkel. G. Plants for Human Consumption. Koeltz Scientific Books 1984 ISBN 3874292169
An excellent book for the dedicated. A comprehensive listing of latin names with a brief list of edible parts.

[183] Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9
Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[245] Genders. R. Scented Flora of the World. Robert Hale. London. 1994 ISBN 0-7090-5440-8
An excellent, comprehensive book on scented plants giving a few other plant uses and brief cultivation details. There are no illustrations.

Readers Comments

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Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
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