Water toothleaf, corkwood Water toothleaf, corkwood

Shrubs with taproot. Stems solitary, erect, branching near apex, 4–12 dm. Leaves alternate; stipules linear, 1.5–2 mm; petiole 0.1–0.5(–1) cm; blade linear, lanceolate, or narrowly elliptic, 3.5–10 × (0.2–)0.5–2.5 cm, base acute to narrowly obtuse, margins minutely crenulate, teeth without prominent blackened tips, not incurved, apex acute to acuminate; midvein prominent, secondary veins ± obscure. Inflorescences sessile, 3–5 cm; staminate cymules ± crowded, 5–15-flowered; pistillate flowers 1–2(–4), crowded; bracts narrowly ovate to oblong, 2 mm, apex acute, glands crateriform, short-stalked, 1–1.2 mm diam. Staminate flowers: calyx 1–1.3 mm. Pistillate flowers: sepals persistent, 3, well developed, ± orbiculate; styles connate 3/4 length, to 4 mm. Capsules globose, 4–5 × 6–7 mm, shallowly 3-lobed; lobes of gynobase 3–3.5 mm; columella absent or only short basal part persistent. Seeds gray, globose, 4.5 × 4 mm, rugulose; caruncle minute.

Flowering Feb–May; fruiting (Feb–)May–Oct. Floodplain swamps, wet pinelands, shallow standing water, pond edges, maritime interdunal swales, generally in moist soils; 0–200 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., S.C.