The Water Dragon is a tough little Alaskan native pond plant. It loves shallow water or muddy areas to grow in. Usually, you find it on pond edges, or slow-moving water courses. It has handsome heart-shaped leaves and showy, spade-shaped flowers that are actually a large modified white leaf, a spathe. The spadix, which looks like the center of the flower is a small group of the actual yellow flowers that form the seeds. Water Dragon can form a dense mat of leaves and flowers, up to about 12" tall, as the rhizome wanders and spreads from different growing points and new plants form. Fall colors can be even more dramatic as a pineapple-shaped seed "berry" turn a dark red-orange as they mature.
When free floating, they rhizome forms "water roots" large white roots that add to the showy quality of the plant. When one end of the plant is in mud, it develops normal fibrous roots in the soil. It seems to be happy either way and I have had no problems over-wintering the plants in a small lined pond, with or without soil for the roots. I tend to plant them in pots underwater, just as a way to provide extra nutrition to the plant, besides what they get from the water roots.
I send a bareroot cutting, at least 6 inches long. I wrap it in live sphagnum from my pond, in a zip-lock bag with a few pinholes for aeration, and send 3-day priority mail. For more info about the live sphagnum moss you get as an extra bonus, read the product description for "Sphagnum Moss - Mixed".
