General: Perennial aquatic herb from strong rhizomes; stems up to 150 cm long, branched.
Leaves: All submersed, triangular-lanceolate, thin, flat, dark green, 3-10 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, the tips blunt, clasping the stem, the stipules 1-3 cm long, coarse, disintegrating into persistent whitish fibres that remain even on old plants, fibrous or stringy; floating leaves absent.
Flowers: Inflorescence spikelike, the spikes 1-4 cm long, with 6 to 12 whorls of flowers, the stalks inflated, club-shaped, 1.5-25 cm long.
Fruits: Achenes, widely egg-shaped or almost rounded, 2.5-3 mm long, 2.3-2.7 mm wide, the beaks prominent, triangular, the keels absent.
Notes: Stem anatomical characters interlacunar bundles and subepidermal bundles absent, pseudohypodermis 1 cell thick, endodermis of O-cells.
Lakes, ponds and sloughs in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; common throughout BC; amphiberingian, N to AK, YT and NT, E to PQ, NB and NS and S to to ME, MA, PA, OH, IN, IL, IA, NE, CO, AZ and CA; E Asia.
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)
