Potamogeton foliosus subsp. foliosus

Family: Potamogetonaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Pondweed is a native perennial aquatic plant found in northwestern California, high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, northern Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, central western California, southwestern California, Great Basin, and desert regions at elevations below 2,300 meters in ponds, lakes, and streams. Flowering from July to October, this plant produces small, inconspicuous greenish flowers in compact spherical clusters. Growing with slender stems up to 1 meter long and compressed nodes, it develops delicate, narrow leaves 1 to 10 centimeters in length and 0.3 to 2.5 millimeters wide with acute tips. Its leaves have distinctive stipules less than 2 centimeters long that decay with age, occasionally leaving behind delicate fiber-like remnants. The fruits are small, olive to green-brown, measuring 1.5 to 2.7 millimeters long with a low keel and tiny beak.

Habitat: Common. Ponds, lakes, streams

Bloom period: Jul-Oct

Elevation: < 2300 m

Bioregions: NW, CaRH, SNF, n SNH, GV, CW, SW (exc ChI), GB, D

California counties: Butte, Ventura, Kern, Lake, Sierra, Modoc, Riverside, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Plumas, San Diego, San Bernardino, Mono

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