Zannichellia palustris

Horned pondweed

Family: Zannichelliaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Horned pondweed is a California native aquatic perennial found throughout much of California in streams, ponds, and lakes at elevations below 3,090 meters. Flowering from March to November, this plant produces small, inconspicuous green flowers in delicate aquatic clusters. Growing with slender stems 30 to 100 centimeters long, it spreads through shallow water with a characteristic submerged growth habit. Its narrow leaves are thread-like, less than one millimeter wide and 2 to 10 centimeters long, with sharp-pointed tips. The plant produces distinctive fruits with a small beak 1 to 1.5 millimeters long, giving it its distinctive "horned" common name.

Habitat: Streams, ponds, lakes

Bloom period: Mar-Nov

Elevation: < 3090 m

Bioregions: +- CA (exc possibly KR, SN)

California counties: Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura, San Diego, Siskiyou, Inyo, Santa Barbara, Marin, Alameda, Kern, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Clara, San Joaquin, Solano, Sutter, Contra Costa, Modoc, Sonoma, Fresno, Los Angeles, Mono, Lake, Colusa, Merced, Napa, Lassen, Mendocino, Imperial, San Benito, Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Francisco, Shasta, Butte, Tehama, Glenn, Humboldt, Plumas, Yolo

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