ALISMACEAE WATER PLANTAIN FAMILY 
WATER PLANTAIN 
Alisma Plantago-aquatica L. 
The Water Plantain is a common perennial in shallow water 
and muddy places from Massachusetts westward to Minnesota 
and south to Florida and Texas. 
Leaves and the flowering 
stalk grow from a stout, 
branching, tuberlike stem 
below the surface of the 
ground. The parallel-veined 
leaves vary greatly in size 
and shape, being narrow to 
broadly oval and 1-6 inches 
long. The flowering stalk, 
4-36 inches high, has num- 
erous branches arising from & 
the axils of very small 
bracts and arranged in 
whorls of 3-10. 
The blooming season is 
June to September. Each 
flower has 3 broadly ovate © 
sepals, green with whitish 
margins, and 3 white or 
pinkish petals. The few to 
many pistils are in 1 whorl 
on a small flat receptacle, 
and are half as long as the 
6 or gstamens. They ripen 
into flattened akenes with 
2 or 3 ribs on the back and I or 2 on each side. 
The Creeping Burhead, Echinodorus radicans (Nutt.) Engelm., 
is so called because its stems or scapes are prostrate or creeping, 
and they often root at the nodes. The coarse leaves are ovate to 
heart shaped and s-9-nerved. The heads of white flowers with about 
20 stamens are in whorls of 3-12. The numerous akenes are 6-I0- 
ribbed, with 2 to several oval glands on each side, and a short in- 
curved beak. This is a frequenter of swamps and ponds from Illinois 
to North Carolina, Florida and Texas. 
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