| Author | L. | |
| Distribution | Essentially throughout the Tidewater zone of the eastern counties, south to Craven County.
This is a Northeastern species, ranging from Canada south to eastern NC; disjunct to FL, AL, and LA. | |
| Abundance | Fairly common to locally common in its rather small NC range. | |
| Habitat | This species is found only in alkaline, slow-moving waters -- bays and sounds, ponds, and lakes where underlain by marl and/or having salt influence. Thus, it usually is found in brackish or oligohaline waters, mostly explaining why it does not range farther inland into the Coastal Plain. |
| Phenology | Flowers and fruits from June to October. | |
| Identification | This is a rather short and slender submerged species of pondweed, typically under 1 foot tall but much branched. The leaves are quite variable in shape but are most often somewhat elliptical to rounded, but have a characteristic clasping base with cordate lobes. The species lacks floating leaves. The spikes are axillary and on long stalks that are about 4 inches long; the spikes themselves are cylindrical and about 2/3-inch long. The clasping submerged leaves and lack of floating leaves should suffice for identification, as should the habitat ties to brackish or otherwise high pH water. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | RAB (1968) and some other references listed sub-taxa for the species. However, Weakley (2018) does not.
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| Other Common Name(s) | Perfoliate Pondweed | |
| State Rank | S3 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | OBL link |
| USACE-emp | OBL link |
