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Fen Pondweed

Potamogeton coloratus

Also called Plantain Leaved Pondweed

Fen Pondweed
Photo: Radio Tonreg from Vienna, Austria, CC BY 2.0

Fen pondweed is a submerged to floating aquatic plant of shallow, peaty, alkaline lakes, ponds and ditches in lowland fens. It is not in cultivation and needs deep, peaty, alkaline substrate with stable water.

Family
Potamogetonaceae (Potamogeton family)
Grows as
Aquatic
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Grow submerged in water; keep the substrate and water level stable.
Soil
Deep, peaty but alkaline (calcareous) substrate.
How easy
Hard
Native range
Caribbean, NW. Africa, Europe to Caucasus
Climate
temperate

About

Potamogeton coloratus, the fen pondweed, is an aquatic plant in the genus Potamogeton. It is found in shallow peaty calcareous lakes, ponds and ditches, commonly associated with lowland fens.

How to grow it

Fen pondweed is not in cultivation, and does not seem particularly easy to grow, reflecting its specialist habitat requirements. It would probably need to be grown in a rather deep, peaty but alkaline substrate.

Where it grows

Potamogeton coloratus is restricted to Europe (Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden (Gotland only), France including Corsica, Italy including Sardinia and Sicily, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Spain (Balearic Islands) and Portugal), Turkey and extreme North Africa (Morocco, Algeria).

Other Potamogeton plants

Alpine pondweed · Small Pondweed · Grass-wrack pondweed · Curly pondweed · Little-leaf pondweed · Pondweed · Waterthread pondweed · Ribbonleaf pondweed · Variableleaf pondweed · Illinois pondweed · Potamogeton ×inbaensis · Shining Pondweed

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Potamogeton coloratus 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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