Alisma

water plantain

water plantain

Water plant with tiny white flowers and pointy oval shaped leaves. Tea used for kidney and urinary problems like kidney stones, lower back pain, lung problems.

Edible Plant Guide © 2012 Markus Rothkranz

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Alisma

 

(water plantain), a genus of perennial herbs of the family Alismataceae. The long-petioled entire leaves are in a radical rosette. The white bisexual flowers have a double perianth and are in whorled panicled branches. The fruit is a compound nutlet of dry monospermous fruitlets. There are nine or ten species (according to another classification, one or two species with subspecies), distributed in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere and in Australia. The USSR has six species. A. plantago-aquatica grows along bodies of water, grassy marshes, swampy meadows, and ditches. Its rootstock is rich in edible starch. The plant contains a substance that irritates the skin; in fresh form it is poisonous to cattle. Water plantain is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.