American Water Plantain

Other Common Names:

(Alisma subcordatum)

Native

American water plantain grows on muddy banks and has green elliptical shaped leaves with small pink or white flowers.

Description

American water plantain grows on muddy banks or in quiet shallow water of marshes or bogs, not in streams or ponds. The spindly stems grow two to four feet tall, are strap like, and have many branches.

Leaves clump around the flower stem, are green in color, and oval to elliptical shaped. Leaves grow one and one-fourth to eight inches long and one and one-fourth to six inches wide. They have sharp points and leaf stalks that are longer than the leaf blades.

Flowers grow on whorled branches on their own stems that range from four to 21 inches tall. Three pink to white flower petals grow four- to eight-hundredths of an inch wide.

Location

American water plantain can be found across most of the United States.

Propagation

roots, rhizomes