Marsilea macropoda Engelm. ex A. Braun

Big Foot Water Clover; Clover Fern; Large Foot Pepperwort

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Big Foot Water Clover is an introduced perennial fern in the Water-Clover family (Marsileaceae). It is native to Texas and Mexico. In Alabama it has been introduced in Mobile County. Big Foot Water Clover occurs in lawns, on roadsides, in cemeteries, and in vacant lots, where it often forms an extensive ground cover. It is a perennial from creeping rhizomes, forming dense clones. Roots are produced from the nodes. Leaves are petiolate, erect, with 4 triangular pinnae. The petioles and pinnae are pubescent with white hairs. The pinnae fold closed at night and on cloudy or cold days. Big Foot Water Clover reproduces by forming spores. The spores are produced in a modified leaf known as a sporocarp. Sporocarps are hairy, erect, short-stalked, bean-shaped structures produced at or below soil level. Big Foot Water Clover is more terrestrial than other members of the genus in Alabama.—A. Diamond

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Not Native

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