Baldellia ranunculoides


Baldellia ranunculoides, the lesser water-plantain, is a species of flowering plant in the family Alismataceae.

Description

Baldellia ranunculoides is an aquatic plant which produced erect flowering stems that rise up to above the water surface. Each flower stalk bears one or two umbels of up to five flowers each, and often only a single flower. Each flower is in diameter, and has three petals. When not in flower, B. ranunculoides can be mistaken for lesser spearwort, Ranunculus flammula, which grows in similar locations.

Distribution

Baldellia ranunculoides is found along the Atlantic and Baltic coast of western and northern Europe, and along the Mediterranean coasts of southern Europe, Turkey and North Africa. Recently found in eastern Newfoundland, Bristol's Hope barachois, Avalon Peninsula, the only location in North America. May have been introduced by a float plane (Sarracenia magazine, Newfoundland and Labrador Wildflower Society.