Along the Tamiami Trail at the southern tip of Florida are expanses of pickerelweed with myriads of black swallowtail butterflies hovering over the blue flowers.
Similar blue flowers in swamp areas in the north raise their club-like spikes above the water.
Pontederia Cordata
The species best known is Pontederia cordata which grows from Nova Scotia and Ontario southward to northern Florida and Texas and westward to Minnesota.
In a variety of P. c. angustifolia, the leaves are narrow. Southern pickerel weed forms such dense stands in Florida and is P. lanceolata.
The minute blue flowers with delicate fragrances are irregular in form. The upper lobe has a spot of yellowish-green, and the whole flower is startlingly like a water hyacinth in miniature.
Little wonder, for the water hyacinth, belongs to the same family and is sometimes listed as Pontederia paniculata but more correctly as Eichhornia paniculata.
Where To Grow Pickerel Weed
Popular as a pool plant and generally available from dealers in aquatic plants, the pickerel weed deserves more garden space than it is generally given.
It is suitable for the bog garden or the edge of a pool. Though thriving in water up to 12” inches deep, it can tolerate occasional drying out.
In Florida, I grow pickerel weed and companionable arrowheads, sabatia, bladderworts, Crinum americanum, and Iris savannarum by digging a shallow hollow in the ground.
Summer rains keep it flooded, and occasional flooding in winter or dry season keeps pickerel weed happy.
Propagation is By Division
A greater problem generally is how to keep it in bounds, for it is somewhat spreading. But surely the sight of its bright blue (rarely white) flower spike and shiny green leaves and stems, sometimes covered with clusters of round, pink snail’s eggs, merits it a place in the garden.
44659 by Albertine Anthony