Spiked Water-milfoil - Myriophyllum spicatum

Spiked Water-milfoil has slender stems up to 2.5 metres long. The submerged leaves, usually between 15 and 35 mm long, are borne in whorls of four, pinnate, with the numerous thread-like leaflets, 4 to13 mm long. It has minute, dull red flowers in spikes above the water surface, in summer.

Myriophyllum alterniflorum has been recorded in VC55, but is rare.  There are no recent records for M verticillatum 

Leaves usually 4 in a whorl (may be 3 or 5).  The flowers are in whorls, and reddish.  M alterniflorum has flowers either opposite or alternate, and yellowish; the leaves usually have fewer segments

Submit photos of the plant in habitat and of a sample out of water

A submerged aquatic plant of rivers, canals, lakes and ponds.

Flowers in June and July.

Perennial.

Widespread and fairly frequent in Britain.

Local in Leicestershire and Rutland, but can be abundant where it occurs. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 25 of the 617 tetrads.

In the current VC55 checklist (Jeeves 2011) it listed as occasional, but locally abundant