Vallisneria americanaMichx.

American eelgrass

WFO wfo-0000770230 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Vallisneria americana, photographed by Zac Peterson
fig. a Zac Peterson, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-30 / obs. 193419850
Vallisneria americana, photographed by Neli Kanonerova
fig. b Neli Kanonerova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 193466637
Vallisneria americana, photographed by Jean Sorensen
fig. c Jean Sorensen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 153505735
Vallisneria americana, photographed by Norma Malinowski
fig. d Norma Malinowski, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 151599393
Vallisneria americana, photographed by Josiah Londerée
fig. e Josiah Londerée, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 146705077
Vallisneria americana, photographed by John Abrams
fig. f John Abrams, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 118629348
Vallisneria americana, photographed by Court Harding
fig. g Court Harding, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 114192589
Vallisneria americana, photographed by Jade Fortnash
fig. h Jade Fortnash, CC0 1.0 / obs. 101628691

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 37 botanical countries

Regions where Vallisneria americana is native: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Manitoba, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Québec, Rhode I., South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin ConnecticutIllinoisIndianaIowaKentuckyMaineManitobaMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMissouriMontanaNevadaNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNova ScotiaOhioOntarioOregonPennsylvaniaQuébecSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsin DelawareDistrict of ColumbiaRhode I.
Native distribution of Vallisneria americana, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Connecticut CNT NORTHERN AMERICA
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kentucky KTY
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Missouri MSO
Montana MNT
Nevada NEV
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New Mexico NWM
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Nova Scotia NSC
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Oregon ORE
Pennsylvania PEN
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
South Carolina SCA
South Dakota SDA
Tennessee TEN
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
Washington WAS
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 149 in flower of 207 examined

Peak flowering in Aug. Each bar is the share of Vallisneria americana observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 149 of 207 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 2 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Vallisneria americana var. americana
  • Vallisneria spiralis var. americana (Michx.) Torr.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.