Bolotnik

Bolotnik

 

the name of two genera of plants.

(1) The water starwort (Callitriche; in Russian, also vodianaia zvezdochka or krasovlaska), a genus of plants of the family Callitrichaceae. It is mostly an annual grass with a thin stalk and opposed leaves, completely immersed in water or, more often, immersed except for the leaves. The plant has a leaf rosette that floats on the surface of the water. The water starwort sometimes grows on land. There are more than 25 species distributed almost throughout the globe. They are found in ditches, puddles, swamps, peat bogs, backwaters, oxbow lakes, brooks, ponds, and lakes. The widely distributed bisexual starwort (C. hermaphroditica) forms wide underwater weed beds in the shore belt of reservoirs with clear water. Growths of starwort serve as shelter for small invertebrates that fish feed on; therefore, they are valuable for fish farms.

(2) The genus Limnas of the family Gramineae. Small perennial grasses with rhizomes. There two species in the Altai, Siberia, and the Far East. They grow in mountain meadows and along riverbanks.