Pistia stratiotes

Water lettuce

Family: Araceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Water lettuce is a naturalized aquatic perennial found in the southern Colorado Desert near the Salton Sea in ditches at elevations below 50 meters. Flowering from May to October, this plant produces white flowers nestled within velvety, widely wedge-shaped leaves that are less than 20 centimeters long. Growing as a floating plant that spreads via stolons, it forms dense mats with many plume-like roots and a short, corm-like stem. Its distinctive leaves are soft and hairy, featuring a truncate or notched tip and lengthwise grooves that give the plant a unique, lettuce-like appearance. The plant reproduces through numerous seeds produced in green fruits, creating expansive floating colonies in shallow water environments.

Habitat: Ditches

Bloom period: May-Oct

Elevation: < 50 m

Bioregions: DSon (near Salton Sea, Colorado River)

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