Almost hairless aquatic or semi aquatic plant reaching to 30 cm, and with stout creeping runners. Leaves trifoliate, with oval or diamond shaped untoothed leaflets held above water on long stalks. Flowers pink outside, whitish inside 14 to 16 mm starry shaped, the petals fringed with long whitish hairs. Borne in long racemes.

Photograph of plant in habitat, showing leaves and /or flowers

Shallow water or semi-aquatic in fens and bogs.

April to June.

Perennial.

Widespread but not very common in Britain.

Uncommon in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the The Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi & Evans) it was found in 3 of the 617 tetrads.

It was on the 2011 VC55 Rare Plant Register (Jeeves, 2011) but is not on the current RPR (Hall & Woodward, 2022); it is listed as 'data deficient' because it is not clear whether records are of introduced/escaped plants or natives.