Video ID segment (2-3 minutes)

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Lizard’s-tail is a common emersed plant. It grows into small colonies from underground runners. The erect plant is commonly found growing to one to two feet tall, in freshwater marshes and swamps nearly throughout Florida (Wunderlin, 2003). It blooms in the summer.

Saururus cernuus occurs almost always under natural conditions in wetlands.

Lizard’s-tail has a bottlebrush spike of white flowers. It is typically six to eight inches long but can be longer. The flower spike arches above the leaves of the plant. After maturity, the flowers become a string of nutlets that resemble a lizard’s tail. The leaves are medium sized, about 1 1/2 inches wide, and three to four inches long. They can be arrowhead-shaped or heart-shaped, are on stalks, and are alternate on the stem. Leaf stalks form clasps where they join the stem.

View the herbarium specimen image from the University of Florida Herbarium Digital Imaging Projects.