Water Shield

(Brasenia schreberi)

 

Color Photograph: Copyright Nearctica.com, Inc.

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

Water Shield (Brasenia schreberi)

Identification: Flowers purple, small (about 0.75 inches wide) with 3 to 4 elongate petals curving downward and a large clump of elongate stamens with white anthers. Flower stalk tinged with red-purple. Leaves ovate, waterlilylike, pointed at both ends, floating on the surface of the water. Leaves with connected, submerged stems at the center of the leaf and without a slit. Submerged stems slimy.

Distribution: Southern Canada and most of the United States except for the southwest and Rocky Mountain states.

Habitat: Water Shield is found in ponds and slow moving streams.

Flowering period: July to September.

Water Shield (Brasenia schreberi)

Similar Species:

The small, purple flowers of Water Shield are typical of this species as are the waterlilylike leaves without slits.

Similar Species

No Similar Species