Damasonium alisma Starfruit

Damasonium alisma
©Bob Gibbons /Plantlife

A distinctive water-loving plant with simple, white flowers on short stems, and large, spiky, star-like fruits after flowering. It grows in muddy ponds, with its stems sticking up just above the water surface. Formerly found sporadically in southern-central counties of England, it was restricted to three native sites by 1990, two in Buckinghamshire and one in Surrey.

The main cause of its decline, and the main threat to its future, is the disappearance of ponds in pastures where cattle trample the mud as they drink. Overgrown or neglected ponds have been cleared, and the plant has reappeared in some of its old haunts, although has not managed to appear continuously from year to year.

Classified as Critically Endangered and therefore considered to be facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. In addition protected under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.