We had a mystery a couple of months ago. Mr C spotted a small plant sprouting out of the long grass and across the footpath (see below)
I took a photo but was having trouble identifying it – rosettes of oval leaves on a fleshy stem. I gave up for a while, but recently we noticed a round patch of leaves floating on top of the flooded Diagon Alley, and another two patches have popped up in Little Venice. I managed to get a closer photo of the patches now that the water is subsiding a little bit. And I think I have identified them as Common water-starwort.
I’m overjoyed at having a ‘new’ plant at this time of the year. Of course, it isn’t new – it’s been there all along. I just haven’t been able to identify it. This plant is found in mud or shallow water that is stagnant or slow-moving. The leaves have five veins and are nice oval shape (neither too rounded nor too elongated, which eliminates some of the other types of water-starwort). It is not the insignificant white flowers, but the rosettes of leaves which form the mats of stars on the surface of the water. And that’s where the name comes from.
Common water-starwort prefers cooler weather and is most active in the spring and autumn, going dormant in the summer and winter, which is why we didn’t spot them till after the summer. They flower May-September and drop their seeds into the mud after flowering. We haven’t spotted flowers yet, but perhaps we will notice them in the spring.