water plantain
Alisma plantago-aquatica
RHS Plants for Pollinators
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Habit
- Clumping
- Bloom season
- Spring, summer
- Bloom color
- Pink, purple, white
- Foliage color
- Green
- Soil types
- Sand, loam, clay
- Soil pH
- Acid, alkaline, neutral
Garden uses
Attracts
Notes
Water plantain (Alisma plantago-aquatica) is a perennial for pollinator gardens and low maintenance planting. It is hardy to USDA zone 5, or down to -20°F (-29°C). This plant likes full or part sun and moist, sandy, loamy, or clay soil. It forms a clump 24 to 36 inches tall and 12 to 24 inches wide. Pink, purple, or white blooms appear in spring and again in summer, and they are fragrant. Bees and birds visit the plant.
Pairs well with Rozanne crane's-bill, Northwind switchgrass, and Shasta daisy.
Native range
Europe, Middle East, Central Asia, Asia, and 29 more places. See all 33
Europe, Middle East, Central Asia, Asia, Africa, Altay, Amur, Baleares, Burundi, Buryatiya, Chita, Corse, East Aegean Is., Eritrea, Irkutsk, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Kirgizstan, Krasnoyarsk, Kriti, Krym, Manchuria, NW. Balkan Pen., Primorye, Qinghai, Sakhalin, Sardegna, Sicilia, Tadzhikistan, Tuva, Türkiye, Xinjiang, and Yakutiya.