Subularia aquatica Awlwort R DDD N
You usually have to look just beneath the surface of the water at the edge of an unpolluted lake to find this plant and the difficult comes form having wade out a bit and not confusing it with aquatic plants like Lobelia dortmanna. The flowers often stay closed if they cannot quite reach the surface When open they are very small 4 or 5 mm diameter four petalled flowers on a loose raceme. They will flower underwater too so the photo on the left is a fairly accurate representation of what you see. However if there has been a dry spell in May and June some plants will be left out of the water and are more easily seen and photographed.
Subularia aquatica is found in good numbers in Snowdonia and a little further south in Wales but is hardly known at all from England. Its stronghold is Scotland where it is common particularly in the north west. It grows in one or two patches on the west coast if Ireland.
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| Subularia aquatica Awlwort |
LHS: Llyn Idwal, North Wales 7th May 2005 RHS: Llyn Idwal, North Wales 5th June 2007
Added on February 5th 2005, updated 12th February 2012