Elatine triandra (Three-Stamen Waterwort) - photos and description
Leaves notched at the apex
Fruit in above photo
What's left of a flower in above photo
General: Semi-aquatic annual with a prostrate growth habit. Plants root at the nodes. This is probably the smallest plant photographed on this website.
Flowers: Flowers are tiny, white, single, crowd the stem in leaf axils, we measured a flower to 1.5 mm long.
Leaves: Leaves opposite below and in whorls near the stem tips. Leaves elliptical to oval, punctate, sessile or with a very short stalk, and with a small notch at the tip, or a squared tip. We measured a leaf at 4 mm long by 2 mm wide.
Height: Stem length listed in Budd's Flora to 35 mm long, we measured stems to 40 mm long. Plants are tiny, most plants with stems no longer than 30 mm.
Habitat: Shallow water, river shores, and mud flats.
Abundance: Very rare, ranked as an S2 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.
Origin: Native.
When and where photographed: These photos were taken June 24th and July 18th, mud in dried creek bed, Cypress Hills, about 400 km southwest of our home in Regina, SK.