Habit: Annual [perennial herb], in water or on wet ground; monoecious [dioecious].
Stem: slender, generally ascending under water, floating on surface, or prostrate on ground, generally much-branched.
Leaf: generally opposite, 4-ranked, lance-linear to spoon-shaped, entire [lobed].
Inflorescence: flowers 1--2(4) per leaf axil, bracts 2, +- white, generally inflated, or 0.
Flower: minute, unisexual; perianth 0.
Staminate Flower: stamen 1, filament elongate.
Pistillate Flower: ovary superior, slightly lobed at tip and base, chambers 4, styles 2, thread-like.
Fruit: 0.6--1.6[2.4] mm, +- dry, +- grooved lengthwise, splitting into 4 achene-like units.
Species In Genus: +- 75 species: tropics, temperate.
Etymology: (Greek: beautiful hair, from long linear submerged leaves of some of Medit taxa)
Note: Taxonomically difficult; mature fruit and 10× magnification needed for identification.
Callitriche peploides Nutt. a nursery weed in southern California;
Callitriche stenocarpa Hegelm., misappl. to various California taxa, but recorded from many sites in the Rocky Mountains and could be expected in California.
Jepson eFlora Author: Richard V. Lansdown & Robert E. Preston
Reference: Lansdown 2009 Novon 19:364--369
Unabridged Reference: Fassett 1951 Rhodora 53:137--155, 161--182, 185--194, 209--222; Philbrick & Jansen 1991 Syst Bot 16:478--491; Philbrick & Les 2000 Aq Bot 68:123--141Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Callitriche
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