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Approximate leaf spread: 30cm (12 inches)
- Recommended water depth over crown of the plant: 5 - 10cm (2 - 4 inches)
- Flowering time: May to July
- Flower colour: White
- Supplied in the solid 9cm pot we grow them in - for best results we recommend potting on using a 1 litre pot
A British native plant that is now extremely rare in the wild due to habitat disturbance and nutrient pollution. In deep water or in winter it grows with thin, grassy, soft, submerged leaves of a light green colour (see third picture); in shallower water or on exposed mud it produces more robust, floating, oval, mid-green leaves, which have a reddish tinge when young, and simple white three-petalled flowers. In the wild it grows at any depth where there is light, which may be under many feet of water, but is easily out-competed by algae or more vigorous plant species. It produces new plants by runners, but these are small and soft so spreading is not generally a problem. It is not a particularly showy plant, but there are few native plants suitable for small ponds, and even fewer with floating leaves, so this makes Luronium natans very useful.
Sometimes still known by its old name of Alisma natans.
If designing a planting scheme, we recommend approximately 1 Luronium natans plant per square foot of water surface. Read more here on how to pot and care for your plant.