Brasenia schreberi

Watershield

Family: Cabombaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 2B.3

Watershield is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern California Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada, Sacramento Valley, and Modoc Plateau in ponds and slow streams at elevations below 2,200 meters. Flowering from April to October, this aquatic plant produces red-purple to purple-brown flowers about 10 to 20 millimeters long with linear-oblong petals. Growing with slender, branching red-brown stems 30 to 200 centimeters long, it is distinctive for its submersed parts covered in thick mucilage. Its centrally attached (peltate) leaves are elliptic to ovate, 3.5 to 12 centimeters long, with blades much smaller than their long petioles. Individual flowers emerge from leaf axils, with each plant bearing 4 to 18 carpels and producing small oblong, leathery fruits 6 to 8 millimeters long.

Habitat: Ponds, slow streams

Bloom period: Apr-Oct

Elevation: < 2200 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaRH, SNH, ScV, MP (exc Wrn)

California counties: Lake, Shasta, Tuolumne, Mendocino, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Sacramento, Siskiyou, Butte, Tehama, El Dorado, Tulare, Sutter, Lassen, Mariposa

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.