SIX-STAMENED WATERWORT

Elatine hexandra

Waterwort Family [Elatinaceae]

month8jul month8july month8aug

status
statusZnative
 
flower
flower8white
 
flower
flower8red
 
inner
inner8cream
 
inner
inner8pink
 
morph
morph8actino
 
petals
petalsZ3
3-(4)
stem
stem8round
 
rarity
rarityZuncommon
 
sex
sexZbisexual
 

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] Eight-stamened Waterwort (Elatine hydropiper) usually has 4 petals, 4 sepals, 8 stamens and 4 compartments in the ovary).

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.


  Elatine hexandra  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Elatinaceae  

Distribution
 family8Waterwort family8Elatinaceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Elatine
Elatine
(Waterworts)

SIX-STAMENED WATERWORT

Elatine hexandra

Waterwort Family [Elatinaceae]