Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Densely matted annuals with stems rooting at the nodes, glabrous, with stem decumbent to erect, 1-5 cm long.

Leaves: Opposite with linear to linear-oblong leaves, acute to rounded at the apex, 2-4 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, narrowing to petiole, flat and basically blade-like.

Flowers: Solitary in axils of leaves, with sepals and petals 2 or 3, petals equal to or wider than sepals, widely elliptic and membranous, pale greenish white.

Fruits: Irregularly dehiscent capsule spheric to depressed ovoid with 3-15 seeds, seed only slightly curved with 9-15 pits per longitudinal row.

Ecology: Found in muddy shallows along margins of ponds or streams from 5,000-9,000 ft (1524-2743 m); flowers April-October.

Notes: Distinguished from the similar E. rubella by the rounded to acute apex of the leaves and the fewer (only 10-15) pits in longitudinal rows on the seeds.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Elatine is a Greek name for a low creeping plant, while brachysperma means short seeded.

Synonyms: Elatine obovata, Elatine triandra var. brachysperma

Editor: SBuckley, 2010