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Erect and emersed or lax and submersed; rhizome short; lvs bladeless, flat, phyllodial, or with lance-linear to broadly elliptic-ovate blade, very rarely hastate or sagittate, 4–30 × 0.5–10 cm; scape simple or sometimes branched at the base of the infl, 0.3–5 dm; fls in 2–12 whorls, the upper usually staminate on slender, erect pedicels, the lower pistillate on thicker, ascending pedicels; bracts 3–15 mm, connate up to half-length; sep ovate, 3–6 mm, reflexed in fr; pet white or pink, 1–2 cm, often as wide; stamens 12–many; filaments dilated, roughened with minute scales; achenes 1.2–3 mm, winged on the margins and with one or more facial wings, the beak less than 0.75 mm; 2n=22. Swamps, mud, and shallow water; Nf. and s. Lab. to Minn. and S.D., s. to Cuba and Tex. July–Sept. Three vars. with us.
A plant that grows in shallow water. It has underground stems or rhizomes. It keeps growing from year to year. The leaves can be narrow, or oval or heart shaped. They are 25 cm long and 10 cm wide. The leaves under the water are often very long. The flowers are white and in groups of 5-7. They are held in a cluster above the water.
