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Origin:
Native
Life Cycle:
Perennial
General Desc:
Aquatic, immersed, leaf divisions thread-like, bright green, smooth; flexible with water currents but brittle; internodes clustered near tips, branches 0 to 3 per node, plants overwintering on bottom; detached, dense shoot tips, winter buds, no roots.
Identification notes: Largest leaves with fine divisions 1 to 2 or sometimes 3 times; leaves coarsely textured, margin teeth with small bumps that give them a serrated edge, usually strongly raised on broad base of green tissue; achene margin wingless, basal spines or bumps.
Height:
Trailing 8 feet or more
Habitat Description: Found in fresh to slightly brackish rivers, acidic to alkaline, with medium to high nutrient levels, in water 4 to 16 inches deep, in streams, ditches, lakes, ponds, pools, marshes, swamps, and slow watercourses.
Plant Communities:
Riparian
Elevation: 2000 - 6500 feet
Color:
Blue
Shape:
Inconspicuous not in clusters
Tubular:
N
Flowering Period:
Jun - Aug
Description:
Uncommon to have flowers; unisexual, minute flowers solitary and stemless in leaf axils; 8 to 12-cleft whorl of bracts below flowers; sepals, petals none; stamens 30 to 50, pink to red, very short filaments or stemless anthers; ovary superior, 1-celled.
Leaf Color:
Bright green
Leaf Type:
Simple
Leaf Shape:
Pinnatifid
Leaf Margin:
Smooth
Leaf Attachment:
Whorl
Leaves Clasp:
N
Hairs:
No
Spines:
N
Leaf Description:
Whorled, bright green, coarse-textured, simple or dissected into 2 to 5 very narrow, threadlike, ultimate segments (segments not inflated); blades 3 to 11 per node, with 2 rows of small teeth distally and 1 multicellular, glandular appendage at the tip.
Fruit Color: Dark green or reddish-brown
Fruit Type: Achene
Fruit Notes: Unlikely to be found with fruit, its reproduction being primarily asexual.
Seed Notes: Seed leaves (cotyledons) large, fleshy; terminal bud highly developed.
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