Amphibious Bistort

The Latin name for this species underlines the fact that this graceful plant can adapt to both aquatic and terrestrial life. The water-living form can have stems reaching three metres long: its lanceolate, smooth floating leaves vary from seven to fifteen centimetres in length, the pink flowers are grouped in inflorescences resembling upright spikes. The terrestrial form has almost upright stems up to seventy centimetres high, the leaves are smaller, slightly hairy with a shorter stalk. It flowers from June to September. It lives in stagnant or slow-flowing waters. Its great capacity to adapt enables it to colonise habitats where the water level can fluctuate considerably over the seasons, for example the Fucecchio Marshes where both forms occur in the deep pools of waters, on dried clearings and on temporarily flooded lands. Although the Amphibious Bistort is widespread all over Italy it is not a common plant and in some places rare as a result of land reclamation and pollution.