Japanese name: ミズオオバコ（水大葉子） Scientific name:Ottelia alismoides
[Overview]
An annual or perennial growing in ponds, marshes and waterways in lowlands.
The size and shape of the leaves vary with the growing environment.
The short stem is erect.
The leaves are basal, lanceolate to ovate-elliptic, thin, and tinged with purple; they are usually 5–40 cm long and 1–20 cm wide, but in deep water they can reach nearly 1 m in length including the leaf stalk.
At the tip of a flower stalk extending above the water, a single white to pale pink three-petaled flower, 3–4 cm across, blooms.
The flowers last one day.
Below the flower is a sheathing bract 2–4 cm long with 3–10 wings.
In Japan most plants have bisexual flowers, but they may also be divided into male and female plants.
The fruit is oblong and ripens underwater.
[Notes]
The Japanese name comes from the fact that it grows in water and its leaves resemble those of Oobako.
