Scientific name: Alisma plantago-aquatica L.
Common name: Water-plantains

Description
Habit: Stem up to 75cm high.
Leaves: Basal, usually aerial, erect, petiolate; oval, ovate or elliptic-ovate to lanceolate; base subcordate or truncate; apex rounded to acuminate; up to 30 x 12cm, but usually smaller, 2-4 times as long as wide.
Flowers: In a terminal panicle of several whorls, open mainly in the afternoon; hermaphrodite; flowers 7-12mm across; petals 3.5-6.5mm, white or purplish-white; styles equalling or longer than the ovaries, filiform, more or less erect; stamens 6, anthers elliptical.
Fruits: Fruitlets 2-3mm; opaque.

Habitat: Ditches, pools, canals and lake-margins.
Distribution: Very frequent.

Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No

Family Alismataceae
Genus Alisma
Species Alisma plantago-aquatica

Scientific synonyms and common names

Water-plantains [English]

Stace, C. (1997) New Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press, The Bath Press, UK.

Tutin, T. G., V. H. Heywood, N. A. Burges, D. M. Moore, D. H. Valentine, S. M. Walters and D. A. Webb (eds.) (1980) Flora Europaea, Volume 5. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Webb, D. A., J. Parnell and D. Doogue (1996) An Irish Flora. Dundalgan Press, Dundalk.

You can continue searching for Alisma plantago-aquatica on one of these Web sites:

Fauna Europaea (animals) | IOPI (plants) | NCBI (genetic)

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