Wet

Light Exposure:

Soil Moisture:

1 to 2 feet

Bloom Color:

Green

Bloom Months:

July, August, September

This is a perennial grass about ½–2½' tall that develops either individually or in loose tufts of unbranched leafy culms. In sunny habitats with fertile soil, this grass is taller and more stout, while in shaded habitats with poor soil it is shorter and more delicate. The culms are light green, terete, slender, and glabrous. The longer blades of lower leaves have a tendency to droop, while the shorter blades of upper leaves are more stiff and straight. The leaf blades are 1-6 mm. across and 2-10 inches long; they are medium green or grayish green, flat, and hairless. The leaf sheaths are medium green or grayish green, hairless, and open.

Canada Anemone
Anemone canadensis

Type:

Light Exposure:

Soil Moisture:

Medium, Wet

1 to 2 feet

Bloom Color:

White

Bloom Months:

May, June, July

Showy white flowers highlight this plant in spring. This may be the only time of year when the extent of its spread is apparent! In garden settings, be prepared for it to spread quickly by underground roots. In restorations, it can help stabilize soil relatively quickly.

Green Dragon
Arisaema dracontium

Type:

Mixed Sun and Shade, Shade

Light Exposure:

Soil Moisture:

3 feet

Bloom Color:

Green

Like its smaller cousin, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Green Dragon thrives under a variety of conditions, but grows most vigorously in moist, shady, seasonally wet locations. It is deer resistant! The 'Jack,' is the spongy cylindrical structure inside a leaf-like structure that is rolled into a deep cup with an overhanging roof, the 'pulpit'. The whole ensemble somewhat resembles a minister in an old-fashioned pulpit. The fruit are smooth, shiny green, 1 cm wide berries clustered on the thickened spadix and ripen in late summer and fall, turning a bright red color before the plants go dormant.

Bottlebrush Sedge
Carex comosa

Type:

Light Exposure:

Soil Moisture:

Medium, Wet

2 to 3 feet

Bloom Months:

May, June

Porcupine Sedge
Carex hystericina

Type:

Light Exposure:

Soil Moisture:

3 feet

Northwest Territory Sedge
Carex utriculata

Type:

Light Exposure:

Soil Moisture:

3 to 4 feet

Bloom Months:

Umbrella Flatsedge
Cyperus diandrus

Type:

Light Exposure:

Soil Moisture:

1 to 2 feet

Bloom Color:

Bloom Months:

Umbrella flat sedge is an ornamental grass often seen at the edges of rivers and ponds. It is a warm season perennial and grows best in USDA zones 8 to 11. The plant may become invasive in some areas, so it is important to become familiar with the plant and recognize its characteristics before adding it to your garden area.

Mud Plantain
Heteranthera

Type:

Shade, Mixed Sun and Shade

Light Exposure:

Soil Moisture:

2 to 6 inches

Bloom Color:

Blue, Green

Bloom Months:

This aquatic annual or perennial plant of the genus Heteranthera of the pickerelweed family (Pontederiaceae), consist of about 10 species, distributed primarily in tropical America. The broad or ribbonlike leaves of these plants have leafstalks that form sheaths around the long stems. Some species of Heteranthera grow below the water; others float or are rooted on muddy stream banks and lakeshores. Water star grass (H. dubia) is widely distributed throughout North America; it has yellow star-shaped flowers.

Yelloweyed Grass
Lindernia dubia

Type:

Light Exposure:

Mixed Sun and Shade, Sun, Shade

Soil Moisture:

4 to 8 inches

Bloom Color:

Purple, White

Bloom Months:

June, July, August, September

Lindernia dubia is a species of flowering plant known by the common names yellowseed false pimpernel and moist bank pimpernel. It is a member of the 'new' plant family Linderniaceae, and it is sometimes treated as a member of the families Scrophulariaceae and Plantaginaceae. It is native to much of the Americas from Canada to Chile, and it can be found on other continents as an introduced species. It grows in wet habitat, such as riverbanks, pond margins, and meadows.

Waterhorehound
Lycopus americanus

Type:

Light Exposure:

Soil Moisture:

1 to 3 feet

Bloom Color:

White

Bloom Months:

July, August, September

There are several Lycopus species in Minnesota, all with similar clusters of small, white, tubular flowers at the leaf axils, most growing in the same type of habitat at the same time, often next to each other. American Water Horehound is most easily distinguished by its deeply lobed lower leaves, which the others all lack.

Pickerelweed
Pontederia cordata

Type:

Light Exposure:

Soil Moisture:

4 feet

Bloom Color:

Purple

Variableleaf Pondweed
Potamogeton gramineus

Type:

Light Exposure:

Soil Moisture:

1 to 2 feet

Bloom Color:

Brown, Green

Variable-leaf pondweed is a perennial plant that has two kinds of leaves. The floating leaves are leathery textured, oval to elliptical 3/8 to 1 1/2 inches long and 3/8 to 3/4 inches wide with a petiole one to two times a long as the blade. The submerged leaves are thin, less than 1/8 of an inch wide and 3/4 to 2 1/4 inches long with obvious midvein and a pointed tip. The fruits are flat about 1/8 of an inch wide and arise from the axis of the floating leaves.

Yellow Water Buttercup
Ranunculus flabellaris

Type:

Light Exposure:

Soil Moisture:

2 to 3 feet

Bloom Color:

Bloom Months:

April, May

A similar aquatic species is Small Yellow Water Crowfoot (Ranunculus gmelinii), which has smaller flowers (less than ½ inch), and smaller leaves that are typically wider than long and less finely divided.

Macoun's Buttercup
Ranunculus macounii

Type:

Light Exposure:

Soil Moisture:

1 to 2 feet

Bloom Color:

Bloom Months:

With relatively ample wetlands and marshes to provide for some representation across the state, Macoun's Buttercup's range restriction to NW Minnesota and westward would seem to be some indication of a preference for cooler latitudes and more alkaline soils. Within that range in Minnesota it is by no means abundant. It does bear some resemblance to two other native buttercups, both of which are more prevalent in eastern and southern portions of the state. Pennsylvania Buttercup (R. pensylvanicus) is similar in size and leaf shape and also has bristly hairs throughout, but its stems tend to be less stout and do not root at the nodes, and its flowers are half the size, with small round petals and a cylindrical seed head. Hispid Buttercup (R. hispidus) has very similar flowers to R. macounii, somewhat the same stature and leaf shape, and as it name suggests can be quite hairy, but its stems are typically more slender and more spreading to ascending, densely hairy when young becoming nearly smooth with age. Its leaves are also more evenly divided into three main segments that are also more regularly incised into smaller lobes or just merely toothed where the lobing of R. macounii leaves is more irregular

Arrowhead
Sagittaria latifolia

Type:

Light Exposure:

Soil Moisture:

2 to 4 feet

Bloom Color:

White

Bloom Months:

July, August

Pussy Willow
Salix caprea

Type:

Light Exposure:

Soil Moisture:

2 feet

Sandbar Willow
Salix interior

Type:

Tree or Shrub

Light Exposure:

Soil Moisture:

5 to 10 feet

Bloom Color:

Bloom Months:

August, September