Alisma Plantago-Aquatica

This attractive wetland plant has lily-like basal leaves and thin, continuously dividing stems bearing delicate white, pale pink or lilac flowers that open in late afternoon, and close again at dusk. It is a semi-aquatic or aquatic plant that is unrelated to true plantains, which are members of the genus Plantago. Alisma is the ancient Greek physician Dioscorides’ name for a plantain-leaved plant and the specific epithet, 'plantago' is from the Latin for the sole of a foot, referring to the flat leaves.