Montana Field Guide

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Montana Field Guides

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- Kingdom - Plants - Plantae
  - Division - Flowering Plants - Anthophyta
    - Class - Dicots - Dicotyledoneae
      - Order - Water-starworts / Mare's-tails - Callitrichales
        
        Family - Water-starworts - Callitrichaceae
        
        Species - Vernal Water Starwort - Callitriche palustris

Vernal Water Starwort - Callitriche palustris

Other Names: Callitriche verna

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Native Species

Global Rank: G5
State Rank: SNR
C-value: 6

Agency Status
USFWS:
USFS:
BLM:

External Links

General Description

Plants mainly submerged. Stems 3–30 cm. Leaves joined together around the stem; submerged leaves linear, 5–25 mm long; floating leaves oblong, to 4 mm wide. Flowers usually 1 male and 1 female per bracteate axil. Fruit elliptic, ca. 1 mm wide, >1 mm long; narrowly winged above (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Species Range

Montana Range Range Descriptions

Native

Range Comments

Circumboreal through much of North America (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Observations in Montana Natural Heritage Program Database

Number of Observations: 18

(Click on the following maps and charts to see full sized version) Map Help and Descriptions

Relative Density

Recency

(Observations spanning multiple months or years are excluded from time charts)

Habitat

Shallow water of ponds, lakes; valleys, montane (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Stewardship Responsibility

References

Literature Cited AboveLegend: View Online Publication
- Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 771 p.
Additional ReferencesLegend: View Online Publication
Do you know of a citation we're missing?
- Culver, D.R. 1994. Floristic analysis of the Centennial Region, Montana. M.Sc. Thesis. Montana State University, Bozeman. 199 pp.
- Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2022. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants, Second Edition. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 779 p.
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Dragonflies / Damselflies

Ferns and allies

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Citation for data on this website:
Vernal Water Starwort — Callitriche palustris. Montana Field Guide. Montana Natural Heritage Program. Retrieved on July 5, 2025, from https://FieldGuide.mt.gov/speciesDetail.aspx?elcode=PDCLL010F0