Discussion

Arrowhead Plant

Searching on the web for arrowhead plants, this week's painting subject, can be frustrating because there are many species that have "arrowhead" as a common name or part of a name. One that pops up frequently because it is a popular houseplant is Syngonium podophyllum. Common names for it are arrowhead plant, arrowhead vine, arrowhead philodendron, goosefoot, nephthytis, African evergreen, and American evergreen.

But this isn't my painting subject. From the shape of the leaves, it is easy to see why arrowhead plant would be an appropriate common name for it. There are somewhere between 30 to 40 species in the Syngonium genus, all of which have arrowhead common names.

Sagittaria is another genus of about 30 species, all which are commonly called arrowhead, duck potato, Swamp Potato, and Katniss. The Japanese name for this week's painting subject, omodaka, is the Sagittaria trifolia species. It's common names are threeleaf arrowhead and Chinese arrowhead.

Omodaka is a perennial herb that grows in water from 4 to 20 inches in depth with a muddy bottom. They are not exclusively water plants, but they do best when submerged in water. Common places are marshes, edges of ponds, slow-moving rivers, rice paddies, and ditches. I have been unable to find a decent photo of an entire omodaka plant, but the mass of them shown below gives an idea of how they can look in their natural environment.

Leaf stalks grow directly from a root mass; one leaf per stalk. The type of leaves vary with the plant's age. Seedlings produce 6 to 8 grass-like leaves. When more mature, the leaves become strap-shaped and typically float on the surface of water. Mature plants are the ones with the arrowhead-shaped leaves that rise above the water. The number of them varies from plant to plant.

This photo gives an idea of the general size of the mature leaves.

Omodaka is a flowering plant. Each blossom has three petals. The yet immature yellow center in the photo below is comprised of male pollen-bearing stamens. 

Each omodaka blossom is either male or female, but both kinds of blossoms grow on flower stalks. Male blossoms grow high on the stalk, and female blossoms grow lower down.

Like leaves, flower stalks grow directly from the root mass and can be as much as 3 feet tall. Single plants can have up to three flower stalks.

Omodaka plants are not evergreen. They are dormant during the winter. Leaves begin to grow in the spring and quickly transition from the grass-like original shapes to the arrowhead shape. Flower stalks begin to grow in the summer, and the main blossoming time is August through October. Mature blossoms typically have three winged seeds each. After the seeds drop, the leaves and flower stalks die out, leaving the root mass to recover over the winter.

New plants can grow from seeds, but they can also grow from corms, bulb-like growths that develop from the underground root mass. See the illustration below:

Rhizomes are horizontal underground stems from which clones of the original plant grow. Irises and some bamboo species have rhizomes. Tulips are famous for their bulbs. Potatoes are a type of tuber. Omodaka grow corms.

One way to tell the difference between a corm and a bulb is to cut them open. Bulbs have concentric layers like onions. Corms are a solid mass under a paper-like outer wrapping. Here are omodaka corms.

Artwork

Kamon

Kamon are Japanese family crests. Many of those designs are based on plants. Several are are based on omodaka. Here is one that is associated with many Japanese families.

Uchiwa

Uchiwa are a type of Japanese fan. Here is an example with an illustration pasted on the frame. It is thought that the artwork was a product of a collaboration between Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 – 1858) and Utagawa Kunioshi (1798 – 1861), both ukiyo-e masters.

The print below, produced in 1834, is by an unknown Edo Period (1603 – 1868) artist. It was intended to be cut and pasted on to an uchiwa but survived uncut. It is here because its composition features an iris and a type of arrowhead plant. It isn't an omodaka.

Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849)

The artwork in the unusual print below is a type of arrowhead plant, though it is not an omodaka in spite of its title, Omodaka Flowers with Poems. It was printed in the 1795 to 1798 time period before Hokusai became famous. He mastered many styles of artwork besides landscapes. The artwork in this print accompanies poems by three poets. I don't have their names, and the type of writing is too archaic for me to read.