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Ducklettuce (Ottelia alismoides)

Ducklettuce Synonyms: Stratiotes alismoides

Description: It is currently listed on the Federal Noxious Weed list.

Habit: Annual, herbaceous, submersed aquatic plant.

Leaves: Oval, green in color and submerged, sometimes partly emergent in shallow water.

Flowers: White in color, 3 petals with a yellow blotch at the center.

Fruit and seeds: Small, ribbed, oval, tan seeds that range from 15-40 mm long with a beaked tip. Plants are capable of producing up to 2000 seeds.

Habitat: Native to southeastern Asia. Found in freshwater lakes, reservoirs, ponds, marshes and ditches.

Reproduction: By seed.

Similar species: May be confused with other aquatic plants such as Echinodorus berteroi.

Monitoring and rapid response: Small populations can be controlled by hand pulling which should be done before flowering and seed-set. Registered aquatic herbicides can provide temporary control in small scales.

Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Bugwood Wiki.

Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org).Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).


Common Name:

Ducklettuce

Scientific Name:

Ottelia alismoides

Family:

Hydrocharitaceae
(Tape-grass)

Duration:

Perennial

Habit:

Aquatics

USDA Symbol:

OTAL