Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Elodea canadensis

Canada waterweed, Canadian waterweed, common water weed, Rocky Mountain waterweed
Leaves

mostly in 3s, spreading to recurved, linear, oblong, to ovate, 5–13 × (1.1–)2–5 mm, flat.
Inflorescences

staminate spathes cylindric, 8.2–13.5 mm;

peduncles abscissing just before or during anthesis; pistillate spathes cylindric, 8.3–17.5 mm.
Flowers

unisexual; staminate flowers: stamens 7–9(–18), pedicels detaching before or during anthesis; all filaments connate proximally, forming column;

anthers 1.7–3 mm;

pollen in tetrads; pistillate flowers: styles 2.6–4 mm.
Seeds

fusiform, 4–5.7 mm, basal hairs absent.
2n

= 24 (Britain).

Elodea canadensis
Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Waters, mostly calcareous, of lakes and rivers
Elevation 0–2000 m (0–6600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; CA; CO; CT; DE; FL; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; SD; TN; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; BC; MB; NB; NS; ON; QC; SK; Europe; Asia; Australia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 22.
Parent taxa Hydrocharitaceae > Elodea
Sibling taxa
E. bifoliata, E. nuttallii
Synonyms E. brandegeeae
Name authority Michaux: Flora Boreali-Americana 1: 20. (1803)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers