Waterwort Family [Elatinaceae] |
status
flower
flower
inner
inner
morph
petals
3-(4)stem
rarity
sex
9th Sept 2013, Shillinglee, West Sussex | Photo: © Dawn Nelson |
It is growing in damp mud in the foreground, somewhere... |
9th Sept 2013, Shillinglee, West Sussex | Photo: © Dawn Nelson |
Oh, there it is, a dense little clump, barely reaching 10cm in height. The petals can be white, pink or red and combinations thereof. |
9th Sept 2013, Shillinglee, West Sussex | Photo: © Dawn Nelson |
There are usually 3 petals (sometimes 4, but your Author have not spotted any in the photo above this one). |
12th Sept 2013, Liphook, East Hampshire. | Photo: © Dawn Nelson |
The number of stamens is nominally 6 (on Six-stamened Waterwort - 8 on the rarer Eight-stamened Waterwort). The one in the centre might have 7? |
12th Sept 2013, Liphook, East Hampshire. | Photo: © Dawn Nelson |
The flower in the centre has 3 red anthers and 3 white ones. The flowers nominally have 3 petals and 3 sepals. |
12th Sept 2013, Liphook, East Hampshire. | Photo: © Dawn Nelson |
The leaves are elliptic to oblong with four rounded corners (none here of the latter shape) with a tiny-pimply appearance (at least on top). |
12th Sept 2013, Liphook, East Hampshire. | Photo: © Dawn Nelson |
The central flower is losing its petals and turning to fruit. |
12th Sept 2013, Shillinglee, East Hampshire. | Photo: © Dawn Nelson |
These specimens have turned to fruit, the flowers mostly having gone, spent up. |
12th Sept 2013, Shillinglee, East Hampshire. | Photo: © Dawn Nelson |
12th Sept 2013, Shillinglee, East Hampshire. | Photo: © Dawn Nelson |
12th Sept 2013, Shillinglee, East Hampshire. | Photo: © Dawn Nelson |
The fruits normally have three (sometimes occasionally four) internal compartmens for seeds. They are like tiny apples with a dimple in the centre from where the 3 (to 4) styles emerged. |
It is native, but only a fairly rare plant scoring just a single [R] on Clive Stace's rarity scale and is found on wet mud, peaty soil or in shallow fesh water, with the flowers usually hidden beneath the mud and only the photosynthetic oval leaves being visible. (The rarer [RR] The plant can also survive for several years underwater without flowering. Dawn the photographer and botanist in the above photos tells me that they were taken after the level of the pond had lowered a bit revealing them on the mud and not under the water. It is superficially similar to Purslane (Portulacea oleracea) It occurs scattered in the UK mostly in the West and the South-East.
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Elatine | hexandra | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Elatinaceae |
Elatine (Waterworts) |
Waterwort Family [Elatinaceae] |