Small annual aquatic submerged herbs, with basal linear subulate leaves, and minute racemose white flowers. Silicles short-stipitate, globose to oblong or elliptic, the valves convex, I-ribbed on the back, the partition broad. Stigma sessile, entire. Seeds few, in 2 rows in each cell, marginless. Cotyledons narrow, incumbent, curved above their base. [Latin awl, from the awl-shaped leaves.]

A monotypic genus of the northern hemisphere.

1. Subularia Aquática L. Water Awlwort

Fig. 2025

Subularia aquatica L. Sp. Pl. 642. 1753.

Tufted, glabrous, 1'-4' high, growing on the margins and bottoms of lakes in shallow water. Flowering scape simple, lateral, 1'-3 1/2' high; leaves nearly cylindric, 6"-15" long; flowers few, racemose, distant; pedicels slender, 1"-3" long in fruit; petals white, minute; pods 1"-1 1/2" long.

In clear, cold lakes, Newfoundland to British Columbia, Maine, New Hampshire and Ontario, south in the Rocky Mountains to Wyoming, and to California. Also in Europe and Siberia. June-Sept.