Spatterdock

Did you know

• Spatterdock flowers smell of alcohol — produced by fermenting sugars — which attracts beetles and flies that specialize in fermenting plant material as pollinators.
• The inflated underwater stems can reach 15 feet long in deep water, and the plant stores massive amounts of starch in thick rhizomes buried in pond mud.
• Native Americans across eastern North America ground the seeds and dried rhizomes into flour, and cooked the young leaf stems as a vegetable.
• It differs from white water lilies in having spherical, bottle-shaped flowers that never open fully — they remain half-closed even at peak bloom.
• The thick floating leaves provide critical habitat for frogs, turtles, insects, and fish, and their shade reduces algal growth in slow-moving water.

Color meanings

Uses

• pond plant
• wildlife habitat
• traditional food source