southern water-plantain, Alisma subcordatum

Water-plantains played a significant role for pre-grocery store humans, and remain an important part of our wetlands flora. The roots and plant bases were eaten, and used as medicine mostly for digestive issues. These days they are an important wildlife food, particularly for waterfowl. The flowers are kind of insignificant, with petals no more than 3 millimeters long. This species was long included with A. triviale under the name A. plantago-aquatica. Southern water plantain is more northern than it sounds, growing in AL, AR, CO, CT, DE, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, VT, WI, WV, MB, NB, ON, and QC. USDA also lists it for AZ, CA, NM, and OR, possibly because of thedifficulty in dividing up info when you divide species. Kitty Todd Preserve, LucasCo OH, 8/9/13.