Potamogeton natans (Floating Pondweed) - photos and description

 

 

 

 

 


Stigmas light pink in colour

 

General: Aquatic perennial with floating leaves. Rhizomatous and glabrous.

Flowers: Flowers in a dense, cylindric, green spike, the spike measured at 4 cm long. The flowers have 4 green bracts, bract measured at 3 mm diameter, stigmas light pink in colour, and arched in appearance.

Leaves: There are two types of leaves - floating leaves are alternate, elliptical, leathery, brownish-green, measured at 7 cm long and 4 cm wide; submerged leaves linear measured at 11 cm long and 2 mm wide.

Height: We measured flowering stems rising to 6 cm out of the water.

Habitat: Ponds and slow moving water in the boreal forest.

Abundance: Listed as fairly common in Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Saskatchewan.

Origin: Native.

When and where photographed: Took the above photos in a roadside pond, 1 meter depth of water, July 7th, boreal forest, about 450 km north east of our home in Regina, SK.