L.
Water-plantain is a common, native aquatic perennial. In West Glamorgan it can be found almost anywhere where there is a body of water that is not too deep, nor fast moving, nor too nutrient deficient. The small 3-petalled flowers and the relatively broad leaves with blunt, sub-cordate or rounded bases are diagnostic features that separate it from Narrow-leaved Water-plantain (Alisma lanceolata). The fowers tend to open only in the afternoon. It can only be confused with Alisma lanceolatum, whose flowers open in the morning and the afternoon and which has narrowly elliptic, lanceolate leaves which become gradually narrowed (cuneate) towards the leaf stalk.
Native
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