FIELD ID CHARACTERISTICS:
Heart-shaped leaves; distinctive white, drooping flowers.
Description: Perennial herb to about 0.5 m in height, forming dense stands.
Leaves: Alternate, heart-shaped leaves growing on zig-zagged stems. Leaf venation palmate and leaf edges entire.
Flowers/Fruit: White, graceful flower spike, which resembles a lizard's tail. Fruits dark brown, textured capsules. However, this plant also spreads by underground rhizomes and often forms dense stands. Blooms May through September; fruits August to November.
Habit and Range: Shady swamps, wet woods and ditches throughout the Coastal Plain and Piedmont.
COMMON CONFUSIONS:
Pontederia cordata (pickerelweed) has similar leaf bases, but they have rounded tips and less branched venation. Leaves also rise from base of plant in P. cordata.
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