Elatine chilensis

Chilean waterwort

Family: Elatinaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Chilean waterwort is a California native perennial found in northern Sierra Nevada, Plumas County, and Madeline Plains in muddy pond shores at elevations of 600 to 1,700 meters. Flowering from April to September, this delicate plant produces tiny white flowers with 3 ovate petals, clustered singly or in pairs at each node. Growing with decumbent to erect stems just 0.5 to 10 centimeters tall, it forms low, compact clusters in wet habitats. Its leaves are narrow-oblong to wide-elliptic, tapering to the base with short petioles less than a quarter the length of the blade. The fruit contains 3 chambers, each holding 20 to 40 small elliptic seeds with distinctive surface pitting.

Habitat: Muddy shores of ponds

Bloom period: Apr-Sep

Elevation: +- 600-1700 m.

Bioregions: n SNH, PR, MP (Madeline Plains, Lassen Co. Sierra Valley, Plumas Co.)

California counties: Riverside, Los Angeles, Modoc, San Bernardino, Alpine, Lassen, Butte, Sutter, Yuba, Glenn, Plumas, Merced, Sierra, Siskiyou, San Diego, Tuolumne

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