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Species Image Gallery (opens in a new window) |
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| THE WATERMILFOIL FAMILY | |||||||||
| The watermilfoils are a family of
aquatic herbs. These plants grow around the world, but are actually most
common in the southern hemisphere. In Saskatchewan, we have less than ten
members of this family. These plants have underwater as well as above water parts. The leaves are alternate, opposite, or whorled. The above water leaves are usually simple, but the under water leaves are deeply dissected into thread-like segments. The flowers can be solitary in the axils of the leaves or in terminal clusters. The flowers can be perfect or imperfect and some species will have both kinds of flowers. There are usually four sepals and petals and anywhere from two to eight stamens. The fruit is a nut, fleshy and single-seeded or dry and splitting into single-seeded segments. |
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| CUTLEAF WATERMILFOIL | |||||||||
| LATIN NAME: Myriophyllum pinnatum | |||||||||
| WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? | |||||||||
| Cutleaf watermilfoil is a perennial aquatic plant that can be up to 150 cm long. The underwater leaves are whorled in groups of three to six and have three to five pairs of thread-like divisions. The above water leaves are linear and narrow and are longer than the flowers. The flowers are in spikes with the male flowers on the top and the female flowers below. The flowers can be perfect or unisexual. Each flower has four sepals and four petals. The male and perfect flowers have four stamens. The fruit is nut-like and four-lobed. | |||||||||
| WHERE DOES IT GROW? | |||||||||
| Cutleaf watermilfoil grows in shallow sloughs. | |||||||||
| WHERE IS IT FOUND IN SASKATCHEWAN? | |||||||||
| This species is found in southeastern Saskatchewan in the Moist Mixed Grassland ecoregion. | |||||||||
| WHY IS IT RARE? | |||||||||
| Cutleaf watermilfoil is endangered or possibly even extirpated from Saskatchewan. This plant is extremely rare and is known only from one location and its existence in the province has not been verified for at least 50 years. | |||||||||
| HOW TO IDENTIFY CUTLEAF WATERMILFOIL | |||||||||
| * Are the male and female flowers in the same spike? * Does this plant live in the water? * Do the male flowers have four stamens? * Did you find it in southeastern Saskatchewan? | |||||||||
| If you answered yes to all of these questions, you may have found cutleaf watermilfoil! | |||||||||
