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Carl Farmer Floating leaves (can be much more oval than this) |
Frequent in burns, pools, lochs and rivers. Submerged leaves c 5-20 mm x 1-2 mm ID: Submerged* leaves linear, notched and sometimes expanded at tip. Floating* rosette leaves shorter and broader than submerged leaves. Opposite leaf-bases smoothly joined across the stem without a gap at the join. *Note changing water levels can submerge floating leaves and vice versa. Other features: The fruits are sometimes stalked. If the stalks are clearly over 2 mm long, you have var brutia, whose fruit-stalks can be up to 12 mm long. If the submerged leaves have greatly expanded notched tips (like "bicycle spanners"), you have var hamulata. Very often both these characters are absent, and I would then record the plant simply as C brutia. |
