General: Perennial, aquatic herb from fine, tufted roots; stems up to 100 cm long, sparsely branched.
Leaves: All submersed, linear, the sides parallel, soft, light to olive-green, 3-8 cm long, 2-4 mm wide, usually with 3 to 5 veins, the tips rounded, the stipules 0.5-2 cm long, delicate, not fibrous, greenish or brownish, not shredding at the tips, the margins overlapping.
Flowers: Inflorescence spikelike, the spikes 0.5-1.5 cm long, with 3 to 8 whorls of flowers, the stalks thin; bases of winter buds soft, smooth.
Fruits: Achenes, egg-shaped, 3-4 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, widest above the middle, the beaks short, the keels absent.
Lakes and sloughs in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; infrequent throughout BC; circumpolar, N to YT, E to ON, NS and NF and S to ME, MA, PA, NC, FL, AL, MI, and LA; Eurasia, Australia.
