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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Texas Bergia
Bergia texana (Hook.) Seub. ex Walpers

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Waterwort (Elatinaceae)
Flowering: July-October
Field Marks: This much branched, often sprawling annual is recognized by its glandularly opposite leaves and its tiny axillary flowers with 5 free white petals.
Habitat: Mud flats, muddy shores of ponds, sandy lake beds.
Habit: Annual herb with a slender taproot.
Stems: Spreading or ascending, much branched, up to 15 inches long, glandular-hairy, usually reddish.
Leaves: Opposite, simple, elliptic to oblong, up to 1 1/2 inches long, up to 3/4 inch wide, pointed at the tip, tapering to the base, glandular-toothed, glandular-hairy.
Flowers: Solitary in the axils of the leaves, borne on short stalks.
Sepals: 5, free from each other, persistent on the fruit, green with a whitish margin, 1/8-1/6 inch long, with a thickened vein down the middle.
Petals: 5, free from each other, about as long as the sepals.
Stamens: 5 or 10.
Pistils: Ovary superior; styles 3 or 5.
Fruits: Capsules spherical to ovoid, up to 1/8 inch long, containing minute curved seeds.
Notes: The seeds are eaten by waterfowl.

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