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Antarctic Water Starwort

Callitriche antarctica

Antarctic Water Starwort
Photo: (c) Flavien Saboureau, some rights reserved (CC BY), CC BY 4.0

Antarctic water-starwort is a small, mat-forming aquatic or wet-ground herb with tiny yellow flowers, native to cold subantarctic islands and southern South America. It needs cold, wet, open conditions and is not a typical garden or houseplant.

Family
Plantaginaceae (Plantain family)
Grows as
Shrub, Aquatic
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Keep constantly wet or submerged in cool, clean freshwater.
Soil
Wet mud or shallow freshwater; it grows in bogs and pools.
Temperature
Cool conditions suited to subantarctic climates; it tolerates cold and does not need warmth.
How easy
Moderate
Native range
Antipodean Is., Snares I., Subantarctic Is., S. Chile, S. Argentina
Climate
temperate

About

Callitriche antarctica, commonly known as the Antarctic water-starwort, is a small, prostrate plant with tiny yellow flowers in the family Plantaginaceae (though sometimes placed in its own family – Callitrichaceae). It is found in wet places on many subantarctic islands and has a wide circumantarctic distribution, something reflected in its specific epithet.

Where it grows

The starwort occurs on Campbell, Heard and Macquarie Islands, the Auckland, Antipodes, Kerguelen, Prince Edward, Crozet and Falkland Islands, as well as on South Georgia and Tierra del Fuego. The plant may be locally common, especially in boggy areas, along streams and around freshwater pools.

Other Callitriche plants

Pedunculate Water-Starwort · Callitriche christensenii · Winged water-starwort · Vernal water-starwort · Pond water-starwort · Terrestrial water-starwort · Water Starworts

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Callitriche antarctica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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