Crested Floatingheart

MEDICINAL PROPERTIES
Crested Floatingheart is an aquatic floating herb. Stems 10-30 cm, rooting from nodes. Leaves few per node. The plant is has it signature floating heart-shaped leaves. Flowers small, simple, five-petaled, star shaped. Petals are oblong-round, winged along their length with a crest-like lobe. Stamens five, short, between the interstices of the petals, with apices, whitish, interposed with five rather short staminodes, with which out of the middle of the opening a green globule, cuspidate. This flower has a cousin called Water Snowflake which has frilly petals.
The plant is commonly used as a substitute for chiretta in the treatment of fever and jaundice. Stalks and leaves are pounded with oil and applied to ulcers and insect bites; decoction is used as a wash for parasitic skin affection.