Florapass
English
Arrowhead

Arrowhead

Sagittaria sagittifolia

Identify the Arrowhead from a photo and log your finds with Florapass.

Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play.

How common: Common

Arrowhead is a perennial water and waterside plant with striking arrow‑shaped leaves. It grows in shallow, muddy edges of lakes, slow rivers, ditches and ponds. In summer it sends up an upright stalk with white, three‑petaled flowers, often marked with a purple spot at the base.

Did you know?

  • The name Arrowhead comes from its arrow‑shaped leaves.
  • On one stalk the male flowers are higher up and the female flowers lower down.

About the species

Identification

20–80 cm tall. Upright, unbranched stem with angled upper part. Leaves rise from the base: usually firm, air‑held arrow leaves with long, sharp side points; often also broad floating leaves; sometimes narrow ribbon‑like underwater leaves. Flowers in small tiers along the top of the stalk, a few per tier; three white petals, often with a purple spot at the base. After flowering, a round head of many small, flat, slightly winged hard seeds forms. Compared with floating arrowhead, this species stands taller with larger, sharper arrow leaves. Flowers in Finland in July–August.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

water

Flowering

Jul–Aug

About the habitat

Shallow, soft‑bottomed waters: muddy margins of lakes and slow rivers, ditches and ponds; sometimes fully submerged in flowing water. Common in South and Southwest Finland; rarer inland up to Kainuu and along the Bothnian Bay coast to the head of the bay.

Sources

Photo: Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, CC BY 4.0 https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/6334292889

Text: Pinkka: Kasvitieteen retkeily Ahvenanmaalle - Nåtön biologinen asema, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40107

Text: Pinkka: A Pohjolan kasveja - Rabelera-Ruta, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40107

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pystykeiholehti

See also