Soft Hornwort - Ceratophyllum submersum

A submerged, free-floating bright green aquatic plant having a feathery appearance in water. The leaves are soft and three or four forked. The small flowers are green.

Ceratophyllum demersum (Rigid Hornwort) has leaves that divide no more than twice from their base. C submersum (Soft Hornwort) has leaves divided 3-4 times.

Leaves forked 3 - 4 times

Either obtain confirmation from a County Recorder before submitting a record, or submit detailed images showing key features.  We recommend that you take and retain a specimen; the County Recorder may wish to see this for confirmation. (RPR)

Ponds, still water.

Flowers July to September.

Perennial.

Locally distributed in England and Wales.

Infrequent and local in Leicestershire and Rutland; may be abundant where it occurs.

The Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi & Evans, 1988) states that it occurred in 22 of the 617 tetrads.  It was not recorded in the Flora of Rutland (Messenger 1971).

In the current VC55 checklist (Jeeves 2011) it is listed as rare, but possibly overlooked.

It is on the VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall & Woodward 2022) as Locally Scarce.