Marsh Mermaidweed (Proserpinaca palustris)
- Family: Water Milfoil (Haloragidaceae)
- Flowering: June-October.
- Field Marks: This species differs by usually having two kinds of leaves, three sepals, no petals, three stamens, and an inferior ovary.
- Habitat: Swamps, floodplain woods, wet roadside ditches, marshes, sometimes in standing water.
- Habit: Perennial herbs, often rooting at the nodes.
- Stems: Erect or sprawling, smooth, up to 2 feet long.
- Leaves: Alternate, those not in water simple, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate to ovate, toothed, smooth, up to 2 inches long; those submersed in water deeply pinnately divided, smooth.
- Flowers: 1-3 in the axils of the leaves, green.
- Sepals: 3, green, free from each other.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Ovary inferior.
- Fruits: Nutlets hard, sometimes winged, up to 1/4 inch long, containing 3 seeds.
- Notes: The seeds are eaten by waterfowl.
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