- Approximate size: up to 45cm (18 inches) across
- Flowering time: June to August
- Flower colour: White
- Supplied as one young plant approximately 10cm (4 inches) across
This impressive British native floating plant forms a large rosette of serrated, spiky leaves, reminiscent of an aloe or spider plant. Young plants have softer, more bushy foliage, which gradually becomes stiffer and more upright as the plant matures. It floats with the tips of its leaves emerging above the water, while the crown remains just submerged.
Like most floating plants it can drift freely, but it grows best if its long, thin roots can get into some silt on the bottom of the pond. In summer, one or two small white flowers are produced on long, slender, upright stems, and new plants are formed on runners from the main rosette. Although a large plant when mature, its rate of growth is slow.
Over winter, the leaves soften and partly die back, and the plant sinks to the bottom of the pond. It returns to the surface as temperatures rise in early summer. For this reason, we do not sell water soldiers during the colder months, when they would naturally be resting on the pond bottom.
Not recommended for ponds in Ireland, where it is not native.
If designing a planting scheme, we recommend approximately 1 Stratiotes aloides plant per 1 - 2 square feet of water surface. Read more here on how to pot and care for your plant.