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.

[view all information]

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...

[view all information]

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.

[view all information]

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.

[view all information]

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.

[view all information]

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...

[view all information]

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.

[view all information]

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...

[view all information]

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...

[view all information]

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.

[view all information]

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.

[view all information]

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.

[view all information]

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...

[view all information]

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...

[view all information]

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.

[view all information]

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.

[view all information]

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.

[view all information]

Broad-leaved Pondweed

Flower: Green flower spikes on long stalks. Fruit: A spathe, up to 8cm long. The spathe is densely packed with the fruit. Leaves: The broad, oval, opaque and leathery floating leaves are variably green in colour. They have pale veins which run parallel to the midrib from their bases to the leaf tips. The leaves have stipules and...

[view all information]

Compact Rush

Flower: Tight clusters of tiny dark brown flowers, one cluster per stem near to the top. Fruit: A capsule which contains at least 3 seeds. Leaves: Tussock-forming and overwintering. Very linear, wire-like leaves. Hollow, green, erect leaves, all of which are borne at ground level.

[view all information]

Greater Spearwort

Flower: Very large, golden yellow, glossy, buttercup-like flower, up to 5cm wide. 5 petals per flower. Fruit: Winged on one side with a curved beak. Leaves: Alternate, spear-shaped leaves which are weak-toothed and up to 25cm in length. Short-stalked, or stalkless.

[view all information]

Lesser Spearwort

Flower: Glossy yellow, solitary, cup-shaped flowers, up to 2cm wide. 5 petals per flower, many stamens. The petals are longer than the sepals. Fruit: Small elliptical, brown nutlets. Leaves: A perennial, scrambling and hairless plant. Alternate, simple leaves. Its stems are often tinged red and its variable leaves are and linear or spear-shaped (hence its name 'spearwort'). The veins run ...

[view all information]

White Water Lily

Flower: White floating flowers only opening when sunny. Yellow stamens. The largest flower in the UK with approximately 20 petals. Up to 20cm wide. Fruit: The fruits are green, fairly round and warty. Leaves: The floating, broadly oval leaf reaches a maximum of about 30cm in diameter. The leaves of White Water Lily are slightly smaller than that of Yellow Water Lily.

[view all information]

Yellow Water Lily

Flower: Yellow flower usually appearing on an upright stalk out of the water, up to 8cm wide. Sepals normally longer than petals. 6 petals. Fruit: A fleshy green capsule. Leaves: Large, floating, oval to circular leaves. The diameter of the leaves is a maximum of 40cm. The leaves of Yellow Water Lily are slightly larger than that of White Water Lily.

[view all information]

Common Water Starwort

Flower: Tiny green, petalless and solitary insignificant flowers which appear at the leaf bases, sometimes in pairs. Male flowers with yellow anthers. Male and female flowers are separated. Fruit: Near-spherical fruits, roughly 2mm in diameter. The fruit is narrowly winged. Leaves: Untoothed leaves which are arranged in opposite pairs along the stems. The leaves can be either submerged or floating. Floating leaves are egg-shaped with 5 to 7 veins, 1cm wide and 2cm long. Submerge...

[view all information]

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.

[view all information]