Bunched arrowhead is a small herbaceous plant growing 15-16 inches tall in saturated soils. It’s the only Sagittaria species in the Southern Appalachians that does not have arrowhead-shaped leaves. Emergent leaves are broad and tapered at the tip and up to 12 inches long and 1–2 inches wide. The white flowers begin blooming in mid-May and continue through July. The fruits mature a few weeks after flowering.
Bunched arrowhead occurs in undisturbed sites that are typically located just below the origin of slow, clean, continuous seeps on gently sloping terrain in deciduous woodlands.
Bunched arrowhead is known from the upstate of South Carolina and southwestern North Carolina.
The primary factor determining the rarity of bunched arrowhead is the current rarity of its required habitat. The seepage habitat in which bunched arrowhead occurs is extremely threatened, and remaining bunched arrowhead populations are threatened by residential and industrial development, conversion to pasture, and invasive exotic species.
- Protect existing populations and essential habitat
- Conduct population and ecological studies
- Conduct transplant and propagation studies
- Monitor colonies, populations, permanent plots, transplanted colonies, and propagation facilities at regular intervals
- Enforce laws and regulations protecting the species and its essential habitat
- Inform public of species’ status and recovery plan objectives
Download the 1983 recovery plan.
How you can help
- Tread lightly and stay on designated trails.
- Visit arboretums, botanical gardens, and parks and learn all you can about endangered plants and the causes of their declines.
- Don’t collect or buy plants collected from wild populations.
- Participate in the protection of our remaining wild lands and the restoration of damaged ecosystems. Support wetland protection efforts at local, state, and national levels.
- Establish and maintain forested stream-side buffers. Several federal, state, and private programs are available to assist landowners, both technically and financially, with restoring and protecting stream-side buffers and eroding streams.
- Implement and maintain measures for controlling erosion and stormwater during and after land-clearing and disturbance activities. Excess soil in our streams from erosion is one of the greatest water pollution problems we have today.
- Be careful with the use and disposal of fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals.
- Remember, what you put on your land or dump down the drain may eventually wind up in nearby water.
- Support local, state and national clean water legislation.
- Report illegal dumping activities, erosion, and sedimentation problems.
- These activities affect the quality of our water, for drinking, fishing, and swimming.
Subject matter experts
- Mara Alexander, firstname.lastname@example.org, (828) 258-3939 ext. 238
- Rebekah Reid, email@example.com, (828) 258-3939, ext. 238
Designated critical habitat
Critical habitat has not been designated for this species.
Federal Register notices
The following Federal Register documents were automatically gathered by searching the Federal Register Official API with this species’ scientific name ordered by relevance. You can conduct your own search on the Federal Register website.
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