Amphibious Bistort

Flower: Pink compact spike, 5 petals. Fruit: Dark brown to black, round, flattened achene. Leaves: The alternate leaves are short-stalked and with tapered bases. The leaf blades are long, narrow, hairy and sometimes tinged red. The submerged leaves are slightly different; they are hairless, have ro...

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Trifid Bur-marigold

Flower: Yellow, stalked and emerging from leaf axils. Normally unrayed but sometimes with short stubby rays (petals), up to 2.5cm. Inner bracts are dark and inconspicuous. The flowers point skywards, but the ... Fruit: Oblong and flattened. The small barbed bristles on top of the fruit cause them to stick to clothing while brushing past. Leaves: Opposite, elongated leaves, toothed and with short winged stalks, 3-lobed, but sometimes 5-lobed. The leaves have a pair of lobes at their base.

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Thread-leaved Water Crowfoot

Flower: White, buttercup-like flowers with yellow centres. Flowers are 7 to 12mm in size. Fruit: The fruit is a roundish or oval seedhead. Leaves: The leaves are thread-like with stiff segments. All leaves are underwater. Annual.

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Common Orache

Flower: Slender, open, leafy, greenish, spike-like panicles. Fruit: A seed fused inside two diamond-shaped to triangular bracteoles. Leaves: Opposite, alternate leaves. Narrow, untoothed or almost toothless. Not hairy.

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New Zealand Pigmyweed

Flower: Small, white-to-pinkish, 4 petals that are longer than the sepals. Flowers are absent on submerged plants. Flowers have stalks arising from the base of the leaves. Fruit: 2 to 5 elliptical, glabrous seeds (follicles). Up to 5mm in length. Leaves: The succulent leaves are arranged in opposite pairs along the stem. They are linear, stalkless and reach a maximum length of 2.5cm.

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Toad Rush

Flower: Tiny star-shaped flowers with 6 tepals and thinly scattered. Forked inflorescence with some flowers located at the tips of the branches. Fruit: A 3-valved capsule with many seeds inside. Leaves: Clump-forming. Very slender stems, grass-like and either unbranched or branched at the base.

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Common Scurvygrass

Flower: White flowers, each measuring between 8 and 15mm across. They appear in a crowded spike at the top of the plant. Each flower is long-stalked. Pollinated by flies, bees and beetles. Fruit: Spherical to egg-shaped pods. The seeds ripen from July to September. Leaves: A biennial or perennial flower with rounded to heart-shaped lower leaves and upper leaves which clasp the stem. Sometimes seen growing on salted road verges.

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Common Sea-lavender

Flower: Leafless branched spikes of tiny mauve flowers. Fruit: A small fruit capsule, containing one seed and enclosed in the papery calyx. Leaves: Deciduous. Elliptical to broadly linear leaves. The leaf veins are pinnate.

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Small Sweet-grass

Flower: Green spikelets between 10 and 25mm in length. 3 stamens. 2 stigmas. Fruit: The fruit is a caryopsis, as with all grass species. Leaves: Broad, bluish-green, smooth, linear leaves, up to 1cm wide.

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Blunt-fruited Water Starwort

Flower: Minute, green, petalless flowers, hardly noticeable. The male flowers have yellow anthers. Fruit: Globular fruits which are broadly winged, up to 2mm across. Grows only in still water. The water is often limy. Leaves: Yellowish-green, linear leaves. The leaves can be either floating or submerged. The floating leaves are broadly diamond-shaped.

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Fool's Watercress

Flower: Stalked umbels, 2 or 3cm across. Usually without bracts. Fruit: Egg-shaped and ridged. Up to 2mm across. Leaves: A sprawling hairless plant with shiny, bright green 1-pinnate leaves. The oval leaflets of Fool's Watercress are shallowly toothed. This plant is similar in appearance to Watercress (Nasturtium offici...

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Marsh Yellowcress

Flower: Small, pale yellow, 4 petals and 4 sepals. Sepals same length as petals, or if anything a little shorter. Fruit: Short, slightly curved upwards cylindrical to globe-shaped capsules which are seldom much longer than their stalks. Leaves: Alternate with 3 to 7 deep lobes, serrated margins. Young leaves form a basal rosette. Leaves are stalked, the lower leaves having the longest stalks. The lower leaves are also larger than the upper.

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