As the Florida population continues to grow, more and more wetland areas are lost to expansion and urbanization. Fortunately, public awareness has increased in the past few years and this has created the need for aquatic plant nurseries in Florida, which play a vital role in supplying ornamental aquatic plants for homeowners and native plants for use in wetland restoration projects. Development of efficient methods for propagation of aquatic plants will be of great benefit to the nursery industry by helping lower their production costs. Little is known of the factors that cause plants to reproduce in this manner. If high numbers of plants could be produced from leaf tissue, this would eliminate the need to use costly tissue culture methods now employed for some aquatic species.
Leaves are opposite, lanceolate to elliptical in shape, unlobed, and sessile.
Bur-marigold spreads readily by seed and is potentially useful in mass plantings and for erosion control. Sky flower is a member of the Hydrophyllaceae or Waterleaf family. It is a perennial herb, growing in and around shallow water in swampy woodlands, marshes, and ditches. The plant is 0.60 to 0.80 m in height with smooth or pubescent stems, and alternate, elliptic to lanceolate shaped leaves. Individual flowers are bisexual with five petals each.