Saururus cernuus
Oklahoma Biological Survey
Lizard's Tail is a plant
usually seen in marshes,
although it also grows along the edges of ponds and
streams. Lizard's Tail gets its
name from its flower stalk, which somewhat resembles a
lizard's tail. Many tiny white flowers make up a
raceme.
A raceme is a group of flowers in a long narrow column.
Lizard's Tail racemes grow up to six inches long, and droop
from a stalk
which is three inches long. Lizard's Tail leaves are
heart-shaped, about five inches long, and dark green.
This plant can grow up to
five feet tall, but much of the plant will be underwater.
Lizard's Tail has hairy
stems above the water line, but it also has stems you can't
see. These stems are called rhizomes,
and they aren't just underwater, they're also under the mud.
Rhizomes can grow sideways and send up new
plants.
Huntley Meadows Park
Because Lizard's Tail has
rhizomes, it can be seen in dense colonies.
A Lizard's Tail colony is many plants close together, some
of which grow from the same rhizomes. Sometimes this makes
it hard for other plants to grow in the same
area. Lizard's Tail is a
perennial,
so even though the parts of the plant you can see die in the
Winter, the rhizomes stay alive and send up new plants in
the Spring. Lizard's Tail blooms from
June to September.
Mark Moran