WATERLEAF FAMILY HYDROPHYLLACEAE 
APPENDAGED WATERLEAF 
Hydrophyllum appendiculatum Michx. 
The Appendaged Waterleaf is a very common spring flower 
in woods from Ontario and New York to North Carolina, west 
to Minnesota and Kansas. It is perennial by a scaly under- 
ground stem whose 
growth allows the 
plant to spread rapid- 
ly. The leaves remain 
green all winter. 
The flowering 
stems are rather 
weak, considerably 
branched and 1-2 feet 
long. The lower and 
basal leaves are pin- 
nately divided into 5 
or 7 lobes, but most of 
the stem leaves are 
like those shown. All 
are more or less vari- 
egated with greenish 
white. 
While this Waterleaf is in bloom from May to June it is often 
the most conspicuous herb through large areas of forest. The 
calyx is 5-parted nearly to the base and in each sinus there is a 
little reflexed lobe or appendage. The violet or purple corolla is 
s-lobed and bell shaped. The 5 stamens are attached near its 
base and alternate with the lobes. The filaments are hairy. The 
pistil consists of a hairy 1-celled ovary, a long slender style and 
2 stigmas. The fruit is a spherical capsule about one-eighth of an 
inch in diameter and containing 1-4 seeds. 
With lobed but not divided leaves much on the order of this 
plant is the Broad-leaved Waterleaf, Hydrophyllum canadense L., 
occasionally found in patches throughout Illinois. However its 
calyx has minute if any appendages, the plant is less tall, and 
most of its leaves are basal. The stem is nearly smooth, whereas 
that of the Appendaged Waterleaf is hairy. In this species, too, the 
capsule is generally slightly larger. The Broad-leaved Waterleaf lives 
in woods from Massachusetts and southern New York to North 
Carolina and Illinois. 
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