The name derives from the Greek one used by Dioscorides. The genus includes marsh plants that live in ponds and ditches.
Cultivated species of Alisma:
A. gramineum is a more clearly aquatic species than the others; there is a var. submersum in which only the inflorescence usually emerges and the linear-lanceolate leaves remain completely underwater; Alisma lanceolatum (about 40 cm), with pink flowers in summer; Alisma Plantago-Aquatica (up to 90 cm), plantain of water: it has a tuberous root, a bushy habit; the inflorescence that can also be high m 1, carries small white or pink flowers with 3 petals and 3 sepals. It is indigenous in almost all of Europe and therefore perfectly rustic. It also has a pronounced heterophylla: the submerged leaves are ribbon-shaped and those emerged lanceolate and carried by long peaks, while in some varieties the emerged leaves are rather large and sagittate.
Cultivation:
due to their rusticity, the Alisma lend themselves to green margins of ponds or the edge of ponds where, however, the water does not exceed 50 cm; it spreads, however, with great ease and can, therefore, become a pest. A precautionary measure is to cut off the inflorescences before they emit the seed. It can be multiplied by division or reproduced by seed, which germinates easily, in jars with fibrous soil and fragments of coal, keeping them just covered with water.
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