Hottonia inflata Elliott

American Featherfoil; Water Violet

Herb

Annual

Vascular

American Featherfoil is a native herbaceous aquatic annual in the Primrose family (Primulaceae). It is found primarily in the Black Belt region of central Alabama and in scattered location in the northern portion of the state. American Featherfoil occurs in gum ponds, in sloughs, in beaver ponds, and in quiet backwaters of rivers and streams. It is an aquatic species rooted in shallow water. The submerged stems are erect, unbranched, and sometimes inflated. Leaves are alternate, opposite, or whorled, petiolate, glabrous, pinnately or bipinnately dissected, with linear or filiform segments. Flowers are produced in umbels held above the water on inflated rachises. Each rachis has 3-10 verticils of 3-10 flowers. Individual flowers have 5 green sepals and 5 white petals. The fruit is a globose capsule with several hundred small seed. It is believed that mallards and wood ducks disperse the seeds. American Featherfoil can sometimes be very abundant at a site one year then completely absent for many years. It is listed as an S2 species in Alabama (typically 6 to 20 occurrences, few remaining individuals, or factors demonstrably making it very vulnerable in the state) and globally as a G4 species (imperiled globally because of rarity or very vulnerable to extinction throughout its range because of other factors).—A. Diamond.

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Native S2 (State Rank) G4 (Global Rank)

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