The leaves have some similarities to : Fringed Water-Lily but they do not go crinkly or brownish at the edges like those of Fringed Water-lily, also, they are rounder and slightly smaller. The flowers are totally different: one is yellow, the other white!

Uniquely identifiable characteristics (when in flower)

Distinguishing Feature : The small floating lily-like leaves with occasional solitary three-petalled white flower held 1cm aloft above the water by a short stalk.

The flowers are very sparse, being solitary, with barely one flower every 3metres. It has taken the author over 5 years walking dead canals to find a specimen that is close enough to the edge of the towpath to take a close-up photograph of the flower without getting wet, and even then he had to stretch a metre over the waters' edge lying spread-eagle on the towpath with nettles in his face. Such dedication!.

Grows only in still fresh water, such as dis-used canals. Any continual disturbance, such as by the passage of craft will inhibit its survival or indeed establishment. Because it has free-floating roots, it is not anchored to the bed in any way, and would thus be flushed away if there were any flow of water.

As noted in the captions under the photographs, a few of the Frogbit flowers differ slightly in appearance. Some have six cream coloured forked styles and a green barrel-shaped bulge on the stem just below the flower, whereas others have thinner stems, no green bulge and yellow innards without forks. This is because Frogbit is mainly dioecious, having both sex organs in the same flower.

However, approximately 5 to 10% of the flowers are monoecious, have just one sex in the flower from the same rosette of leaves. Another rosette may have all of the other sex. But each rosette has flowers of one sex, or the other, when they are monoecious.

Stamens number 9 to 12 with some being sterile staminodes; the females have six staminodes and six forked (bifid) styles.

Another difference in appearance is due to the fact that the flowers rarely form fruits.

There are no alkaloids or flavonols present in Frogbit, but protoanthocyanidins are present.

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