Nuphar ulvacea (G.S. Mill. & Standl.) Standl.

Sea Lettuce Pondlily

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Sea Lettuce Pondlily is a native herbaceous perennial in the Water-Lily family (Nymphaeaceae). It is native to extreme southern Alabama near the Florida Panhandle. Sea Lettuce Pondlily occurs in slow moving blackwater rivers and streams and in old sand and gravel pits near the streams that have filled with water. It is a perennial from a short creeping rhizome. Leaves are floating or submersed on thin, round petioles. The leaves are lanceolate to ovate in outline, 2.5 times as long as wide, glabrous, entire, green on both surfaces, with a sinus that is less than 1/3 the length of the midrid. Flowers are solitary on long peduncles and are held above the surface of the water. The flowers are globose with 6-9 green or greenish-yellow sepals and numerous thick, yellow, stamen-like petals. The ovary is longer than the petals and stamens and has a large stigmatic disk. The fruit is a berry-like capsule with numerous seed. Sea Lettuce Pondlily is listed as a S1 species in Alabama (typically 5 or fewer occurrences, very few remaining individuals, or some factor of its biology making it especially vulnerable in the state), and globally as a S2 species (imperiled globally because of rarity (6 - 20 occurrences) or very vulnerable to extinction throughout its range because of other factors).—A. Diamond

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Native S1 (State Rank) G2 (Global Rank)

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