General: Perennial aquatic herb from a long, creeping rhizome; stems solitary, 10-20 cm tall.
Leaves: All basal, blades egg-shaped to broadly heart-shaped, entire, 5-12 cm long, 4-11 cm wide, long-stalked.
Flowers: Inflorescence of numerous, densely packed, perfect (or sometimes the upper male) flowers in a cylindric to ellipsoid spike 1-3 cm long, the spike subtended by a bract (spathe) similar to the leaves in shape but white and slightly smaller; perianth absent; ovaries 1-celled.
Fruits: Berry-like, egg-shaped, red, 5 mm long; seeds 6 to 8.
Swamps, marshes and lakeshores in the montane zone; locally frequent in BC north of 52degreeN and E of the Coast Mountains, rare in SC BC; circumpolar, N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to ME, PA, IN, IL, IA and ND; Eurasia.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
