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Waterawlwort

Subularia aquatica

Also called Awlwort, Water Awlwort

Waterawlwort
Photo: Johann Georg Sturm (Painter: Jacob Sturm), Public domain

Waterawlwort is a small annual aquatic herb from cold northern waters, with awl-shaped leaves and tiny flowers. It is a wild species of ponds, marshes and peat bogs rather than a garden or houseplant, so it needs cold, clean, shallow water and is hard to keep in cultivation.

Family
Brassicaceae (Cabbage family)
Grows as
Aquatic, Bulb
Light
Full sun
Water
Grows submerged in shallow, cold, still or slow water, often over gravel or sand.
Soil
Gravel, sand or peaty mud at the bottom of shallow water.
Temperature
Cool-water species of cold temperate and subarctic regions; tolerates near-freezing water.
How easy
Hard
Native range
Subarctic & Temp. Northern Hemisphere
Climate
temperate

About

Subularia aquatica is an aquatic plant in the family Brassicaceae which is known by the common name water awlwort. This is a small herb with awl-like leaves (generally cylindrical but tapering to a sharp point), and growing from a corm above a network of bright white roots. Tiny flowers, each only about a millimeter long, are borne on stalks. Flowers which rise above the surface of the water open, while those that remain submersed stay closed and self-pollinate. The seeds come inside tiny inflated pods. There are two varieties of water awlwort; S. a. var. aquatica is native to Eurasia and S. a. var. americana is native to northern North America. There may also be a Mexican subspecies. This plant grows in ponds, marshes, peat bogs, and other shallow, cold water bodies, often in gravel or sand.

Where it grows

Native

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Subularia aquatica 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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