Potamogeton pusillus

Small pondweed

Family: Potamogetonaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Small pondweed is a California native perennial found in coastal, northern Sierra Nevada, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, San Francisco Bay, southern Coastal Range, southwestern California, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert regions in shallow water, ponds, lakes, vernal pools, and slow streams at elevations below 2,700 meters. Flowering from May to June, this aquatic plant produces small, inconspicuous flowers arranged in interrupted whorls. Growing with slender stems up to one meter long and cylindrical in shape, it develops delicate winter buds at the stem tips. Its submersed leaves are thread-like to linear, typically one to three veined, and sessile with stipules fused below the midpoint. The fruit is small, less than 2.5 millimeters long, with concave sides and a symmetric tip.

Habitat: Shallow water, ponds, lakes, vernal pools, slow streams

Bloom period: May-Jun

Elevation: < 2700 m

Bioregions: NCo, KR, n SNF, SNH, GV, SnFrB, SCoR, SW (exc ChI), GB, DMoj

California counties: Riverside, San Diego, Marin, San Bernardino, Fresno, San Mateo, Inyo, Butte, Humboldt, Mono, Santa Clara, Merced, Lassen, Los Angeles, Kern, Sonoma, Modoc, Colusa, San Luis Obispo, Lake, Siskiyou, Yuba, Tulare, Sutter, Napa, Solano, Tehama, Alameda, Mendocino, Monterey, Plumas, Stanislaus, Santa Barbara, Tuolumne, Mariposa

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