The Water Avens loves moist places, and in summer you find it abundantly
by the sides of ditches and streams.
It is a delightful plant to discover, as both the leaves and the flowers
are beautiful.
The flowers grow singly at the end of slender stalks which branch from
the main stem near the top. They are cup-shaped, with heads that are
always drooping.
The petals are bright orange-brown, tinged with purple, and outside
these brilliant petals there is a calyx of deep purple sepals. These
sepals are lined with bright green and have pointed tips, and there are
many hairs all over them.
In the centre of the flower are bright yellow-headed stamens, and when
the flower is withered, and the seeds begin to ripen, a short green
stalk rises in the middle, and on this there appears what looks like a
small green strawberry. From every seed on the strawberry there grows a
long spike with a curl in the middle. This spiky seed-vessel is very
curious.
The leaves of the Water Avens are deep green, and sometimes they have
red streaks round the edges as well as on the back. They grow in pairs
on the leaf-stalk, a large pair and a small pair alternately, and they
are slightly hairy, with edges which are nicked all round. Where the
leaves join the main stem there is often a tiny scale.