Smaller Floating Hearts

(Nymphoides cordata)

 

Color Photograph: NRCS Plants Database, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

Smaller Floating Hearts (Nymphoides cordata)

Identification: Aquatic with floating leaves. Flowers white, relatively small for a waterlily-like plant, with 5 petals. Flowers in small groups. Leaf heart shaped, floating on the water surface. Base with a deep sinus from which arises the underwater stem. Underside of leaf purple. Leaf length about 1 to 2 inches.

Distribution: Found along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts from southeastern Canada to Florida and Louisiana.

Habitat: Smaller Floating Hearts is found in ponds.

Flowering period: June to September.

Smaller Floating Hearts (Nymphoides cordata)

Similar Species:

Larger Floating Hearts (Nymphoides aquatica) (not treated here) is very similar. Hower the plant is consistently large with leaves 2 to 6 inches in length.

Similar Species

No Similar Species