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Sagittaria lancifolia L.
Bulltongue Arrowhead
Duck-potato
Florida native
A common plant of nearly any kind of wetland throughout Florida. Distributed throughout the southeastern coastal plain from Texas into Delaware.
Frequently growing to 1m (~3 ft.) tall and often taller this arrowhead plant has large, unlobed, entire leaves that are lance-shaped. The pedicellate flowers appear in a terminal inflorescence each with three white petals and three sepals. The male flowers are at the top with the female flowers below. Male flowers have yellow stamens and female flowers have a chartreuse-green fruiting aggregate in the center.
Two subspecies occur in Florida, with Sagittaria lancifolia subsp. lancifolia being most widespread and absent from some north Florida counties. S. lancifolia subsp. media is only found in the panhandle from Wakulla County westward and in Nassau County. Subspecies lancifolia has bracts and sepals that are ribbed but otherwise smooth. The bracts and sepals of subspecies media are glandular-papillose.
An American bumble bee can be seen in some of these photos.
Sagittaria lancifolia is a member of the Alismataceae - Water-plantain family.
Other species of the Sagittaria genus in the Wild Florida Photo database:
Sagittaria graminea var. graminea - GRASSY ARROWHEAD
Sagittaria isoetiformis - QUILLWORT ARROWHEAD
Sagittaria kurziana - SPRINGTAPE
Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants (Institute for Systemic Botany) profile for this species
iNaturalist profile for this species
USDA Plant Profile for this species
Date record last modified: Sep 27, 2023
