Tiny kidney-shaped leaves in floating rosettes and three-petalled white flowers with yellow centres, like a miniature lily unrooted on a pond
Frogbit, Hydrocharis morsus-ranae.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Frogbit
Native · flowers Jul–Aug · ponds, ditches and dykes
Hydrocharis morsus-ranae — Hydrocharitaceae
A tiny, free-floating plant resembling a miniature water-lily, with rosettes of kidney-shaped leaves and small three-petalled white flowers with a yellow centre. It floats unrooted on the surface of still water and is classed as Vulnerable on the Vascular Plant Red Data List for Great Britain. At the end of the season its winter buds sink into the mud and regrow in spring.
How to spot them
- ▸Rosettes of small, glossy, kidney-shaped leaves, floating unrooted, joined by runners
- ▸Three-petalled, crinkled white flower with a yellow centre, held just above the water; petals brownish underneath
- ▸About 5 cm high and 20 cm across, floating without rooting in the mud
- ▸Look-alike: white water-lily is rooted and has huge flowers and leaves; yellow floating-heart has fringed yellow flowers
- ▸Look-alike: duckweeds are much smaller, single-leaved and flowerless
How to know it
Listed as Vulnerable on the Vascular Plant Red Data List for Great Britain, this floating plant is found in England and Wales
Frogbit, per the Wildlife Trusts.
Its winter buds sink to the pond mud and regrow in spring
Frogbit — turions.
Its Latin species name means 'frog's bite', and it offers shelter for tadpoles, fish and dragonfly larvae
morsus-ranae — frogbit.
Introduced to Canada in the 1930s, this native of Europe and Asia became an invasive pest there
Frogbit.
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Hydrocharitaceae, the frogbit family (which includes Canadian pondweed and water-soldier)
- •Wildlife Trusts: flowers July to August, about 5 cm high with a 20 cm spread; England and Wales
- •Conservation status: Vulnerable on the Vascular Plant Red Data List for Great Britain (Wildlife Trusts)
- •Floats on the surface unrooted; in winter buds sink to the mud and regrow in spring
- •Native to Europe and Asia; became invasive in Canada after introduction in the 1930s
- •Offers refuge to tadpoles, fish and dragonfly larvae
- •morsus-ranae means 'frog's bite' in Latin
Drill it — 6 cards
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Sources
- The Wildlife Trusts — Frogbit