Arrowhead

Flower: White with purple patch at the base of each flower, 3 petals with purple anthers. Fruit: Globular fruiting heads. Leaves: Large and distinctive arrow-shaped leaves. Arrowhead is named after the shape of its leaves.

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Marsh Bedstraw

Flower: Small, white flowers. Up to 4mm in diameter. Fruit: Small, globular fruit, slightly wrinkled. Leaves: Rough-margined leaves, in whorls of 4 to 6. Stems are without prickles. The similar-looking Fen Bedstraw (Galium oliginosum) does not have prickles on the stems. Perennial which sometimes grows in wat...

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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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Bogbean

Flower: The flowers of Bogbean are distinctive and star-shaped. They are held above the water inside dense, erect flower spikes. The flowers have white fringed petals and are covered in conspicuous white hair... Fruit: The fruit is a spherical, many-seeded capsule. Leaves: An aquatic perennial plant with leaves projecting to 30cm above the surface of the water in which it floats. Large trefoil leaves with broadly oval leaflets, similar in appearance to those of Broad Be...

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Brooklime

Flower: Small deep blue flowers emerging in pairs from leaf axils, 4 petals. Fruit: A nearly spherical brown capsule, splitting open when mature. Up to 4mm in diameter. Leaves: Shiny and leathery, succulent leaves that are round to oval and have bluntly toothed margins. Their stems are often tinted reddish-brown.

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Common Bulrush

Flower: Tiny and densely packed, forming a chocolate-coloured sausage-shaped spike. Fruit: Fruits are minute. They are produced from the female flowers and are covered in fluffy down. Leaves: Stalkless, long-sheathed, alternate leaves which are mainly produced at the bottom of the stem. Pale blue-green and linear.

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Branched Bur-reed

Flower: Globular spiky green flowerheads in a branched spike. Fruit: Spherical burr-like, spiky. Leaves: Broad, 3-sided leaves, similar in appearance to Iris leaves. Floating leaves are rare.

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Unbranched Bur-reed

Flower: Similar to Branched Bur-reed (Sparganium erectum) but with far fewer flowerheads. However, the main difference is that the flowerheads are unbranched. Unbranched Bur-reed is also a shorter plant than ... Fruit: Spherical burr-like, spiky. The fruits are with slender beaks. Leaves: Floating stems (up to 2 metres long) often producing parallel lines in rivers and streams. Some leaves are erect, emerging out of the water. Perennial.

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Common Water Crowfoot

Flower: Solitary flower with 5 white petals, up to 2cm. Fruit: Roundish-oval seed head located in the centre of the flower. Leaves: Leaves are either floating, submerged, or both. The floating leaves are deep-lobed, kidney-shaped and 3-lobed with the side lobes being wider than the central lobe. The submerged leaves are thread-lik...

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Water Dock

Flower: Triangular green tepals in whorls along an upright stem. Fruit: Round to triangular winged fruit. Leaves: Very large broadly lanceolate leaves. Both ends tapered, sharp-tipped. The lower leaves are long-stalked.

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Common Duckweed

Flower: Petalless and minute, rarely appearing. Fruit: Small and insignificant. Slightly winged and bladder-like in shape. Leaves: Pale, flat and oval leaves which float on the surface of still water. Each plant has 2 leaves and a single root. The leaves are called 'fronds'. Spreads very quickly, covering the whole surface of the...

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Least Duckweed

Flower: Insignificant. The flowers consist of 2 stamens and a style. Fruit: Insignificant and minute. Leaves: Duckweed is invasive and mat-forming. It carpets the surface of the water so thick that it can completely block out the light below. The leaves are elliptical, dull green and slightly ridged. The leav...

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Marsh Foxtail

Flower: 6cm flower spikes. Yellow or purplish anthers. Blunt ligules. Fruit: A caryopsis. Leaves: Bluish-green and 12cm (5 inches) in length. Perennial. Marsh Foxtail is much shorter in height than the similar-looking Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis). Marsh Foxtail also grows in wet habitats ...

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Frogbit

Flower: Each flower has 3 white petals with a yellow basal spot. The flowers are solitary and measure 2 or 3cm across. Fruit: The fruit is globular and berry-like. Leaves: A floating aquatic perennial believed by the ancient Greeks to have been eaten by frogs. The leaves are round or kidney-shaped, 3cm in diameter. Grows in still, fresh water.

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Rigid Hornwort

Flower: The minute, green flowers have 8 or more petals. It is a shy-flowerer. Male flowers are whitish and females are green. Pollinated by water. Fruit: Smooth and warty, beaked fruit. The fruit has 2 spines at the base. The similar looking Soft Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum) does not have these spines. Leaves: The feathery leaves are compact and thread-like, growing in whorls of 5 to 14. They fork off from the main stem 1 or 2 times. The jointed stems have a reddish tinge to them. Perennial.

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Water Horsetail

Flower: Flowerless. Horsetails reproduce by spores. Fruit: Ovoid cones sit on top of the fertile main stems. The cones are technically known as 'strobili' and reach a maximum of 1.5 cm in length. Leaves: The green furrowed stems have 10 to 30 very shallow grooves. Whorls of leaf-like branches appear along the erect single main stem.

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Yellow Flag Iris

Flower: Large, showy and eye-catching. Bright yellow with 3 spreading outer petals and 3 inner petals twisting inwards, up to 10cm. Fruit: A 3-angled capsule, or seed pod, packed tight with numerous seeds, splitting open later in the year. Up to 8cm long. Leaves: Long, linear, sword-like leaves which emerge out from the ground. Grows in water or on wet ground in compact clumps.

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Arum Lily

Flower: Large and showy. White funnel-shaped tubular flower with a slit down one side. Yellow or orange spike called a spadix sits in the centre of the outer white sheath. Fruit: An oval, orange berry-like fruit, up to 1cm across. Leaves: Large, green, broadly oval, glossy leaves.

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Common Marestail

Flower: The inconspicuous flowers of Marestail are minute and petalless. They are pink and form at the bases of the leaves. Fruit: A tiny, ovoid, green nut. Each nut contains 1 seed. Leaves: An unbranched, erect perennial waterweed which grows in still or slow flowing water. Most of the plant is submerged beneath the water. The strap-shaped leaves are in whorls of 6 to 12. Marestail has b...

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Lesser Marshwort

Flower: Minute white flowers which appear above the water in small, tight but few-flowered clusters (umbels). Flowers have no lower bracts. Fruit: The fruit is a well-ridged, elliptic to oval capsule, up to 3mm in length. Leaves: A perennial sprawling or creeping plant with submerged, thread-like leaves divided into segments (2-pinnate) and upper leaves with narrow leaflets (1-pinnate). The upper leaves have broader segments t...

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Rough Meadow-grass

Flower: A feathery-looking flower spike with whorled branched. Each branch contains between 4 and 6 spikelets. The flowers themselves are green or purplish-green. Fruit: A caryopsis which is a type of dry, one-seeded fruit. Leaves: Broad, tapering leaves which are greyish-green and very rough. Long pointed ligules. The stems are slender. A hairless perennial which is very common throughout the British Isles.

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Floating Pennywort

Flower: Tiny, pale green-white, 5 petals, in umbels. Not often seen in flower. Fruit: Elliptical or round fruit, up to 3mm long. Flattened and lightly ribbed, divided into two halves. Leaves: Rounded kidney-shaped leaves, growing compactly together and densely covering the water upon which it floats. Leaf margins are smooth or scalloped with 3 to 7 lobes.

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Peppermint

Flower: A cylindrical, dense spike, up to 6cm long. The petals are occasionally spotted. Insect-pollinated. Fruit: Light brown, hairless nutlet. Rarely appears. Leaves: A perennial which is a hybrid between Water Mint (Mentha aquatica) and Spearmint (Mentha spicata). Peppermint has got opposite, stalked, oval, hairless, toothed leaves.

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Bog Pondweed

Flower: Green flower spikes, similar to the flowers of Greater Plantain. The flowers sit on the top of erect stalks and are up to 4cm long. Fruit: Reddish spikes. Leaves: Some of the leaves are floating and some are submerged beneath the water. The broadly oval leaves have prominent dark veins and are often reddish. The submerged leaves are less broad and are stalkless...

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Fennel Pondweed

Flower: Compact flower spikes, usually submerged although occasionally are aerial. Water pollinated, inconspicuous flowers. Fruit: Yellowish-brown fruit. About 3 to 5mm long and 2 to 4mm wide. The seeds float on the surface of the water. Leaves: A fully submerged aquatic plant with rounded, leathery, bootlace-type leaves. Up to 4mm in diameter. Dark green, pointed, linear leaves with white-edged stipules. Perennial.

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