False mermaid, floerkée fausse

Cabomba pinnata (Pursh) Schultes & Schultes f.; Nectris pinnata Pursh

Plants (3-)5-30(-38) cm, herbage glabrous. Leaves: petiole 0.5-4 cm; rachis 2.5-5 mm; leaflets 3-7, 7-12 × 1-3.5 mm, apex obtuse or acute. Pedicels 0.5-2 cm (± equal to subtending petiole at anthesis, elongating 1.5 times by fruit maturity). Flowers: sepals green, 5-nerved, 2-6 mm; petals white, greenish white, or pale pink, oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 1.4-2 mm; filaments filiform, 1-1.5 mm; anthers yellowish, broadly ellipsoid, 0.2-0.3 mm. Mericarps green to brown, somewhat fleshy, 2-3.5 × 2-3 mm (often only 1 seed maturing per flower). 2n = 10.

Flowering spring-early summer. Floodplain forests, swamps, wet-mesic coniferous or broadleaf woods, alpine meadows, pastures, moist areas in sagebrush or desert washes; 50-2600(-3200) m; B.C., N.S., Ont., Que.; Calif., Colo., Conn., Del., D.C., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Ky., La., Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., Mont., Nev., N.J., N.Y., N.Dak., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., Tenn., Utah, Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.

The stems of Floerkea proserpinacoides have a spicy flavor and are eaten in salads. A flower of F. proserpinacoides is the logo for the Flora of North America project.