AQUATICALLY ROOTED

Ponds, streams, rivers, lakes, pools and wet ground generally are home to a stunning and fascinating array of wild flowers. Some of our most beautiful plant species live in these habitats.

Some of the common plants of aquatic habitats you can see are bulrush, yellow loosestrife, water-crowfoots, duckweeds, water-starworts, brooklime, yellow iris,  water-cress, marsh marigold, floating sweet-grass, pondweeds, amphibious bistort, water lilies, water horsetail, common reed, water-milfoils, frogbit, water-parsnips, water plantain, water-soldier, water-dropworts, branched and unbranched bur-reed, common reed, marsh cinquefoil, quillwort, spearworts. Some aquatic plants that have escaped from aquaria have become invasive such as New Zealand pygmyweed and floating pennywort.

Here are some flowers of freshwater aquatic habitats you should be able to find quite easily. If you visit salt-water areas on the shore or estuaries, you will find very many more.

Can you name any of them? (They are not all at the same scale.)

I am duty bound to add a note of caution. Banks are often slippery, and water can be treacherously cold and deep with unseen currents or concealed objects. Please do take care, and if you have kids, always supervise them and keep them safe.

Betts Ecology are proud to have wetlands of various kinds on our sites – rivers, streams, canals, pools, marshy ground and features such as Sustainable Drainage Systems and swales. Of course, in the UK, you are never far from an aquatic habitat both in towns and the countryside where there is good public access.

 © Betts Ecology