''Sclerolepis'' is an

aquatic plant Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments (saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant that ...

native to the eastern

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. It has only one known species, ''Sclerolepis uniflora'', the pink bogbutton. It lives in ponds and other wet areas. When water is abundant, the plant lives underwater, with long stems and flaccid, elongated leaves, and does not flower. When the water level drops, it assumes a form more familiar in terrestrial plants, with an erect stem, and flowers in summer to fall. The flowers are pink. ''Sclerolepis'' is fairly common in the southeastern United States, from

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and

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

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, and has more sparse distribution as far north as

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

Classification

''Sclerolepis'' is in the tribe Eupatorieae of the family Asteraceae. It is thought to be related to two other aquatic genera in this tribe, '' Shinnersia'' and '' Trichocoronis''.

References

External links

Sclerolepis uniflora
by Debra Dunlop, from the New England Plant Conservation Program Conservation and Research Plan Eupatorieae Monotypic Asteraceae genera Flora of the Eastern United States Aquatic plants Taxa named by Henri Cassini {{Eupatorieae-stub