1374 Myriophyllum spicatum L.

This variable aquatic plant is widely distributed in Eurasia and N. America. It includes subsp. spicatum in Eurasia and subsp. exalbescens (Fem.) Hult. in N. America, described as a species by Fernald in Rhodora 21/1919, p. 120-124. This species s. lat. belongs to the circumpolar plants (Hultén, Circumpol. Il, p. 180 and map 171). It occurs also in several places in Africa, S. Asia and S. America, probably introduced there. Cf. also Meusel et al. 1978, map p. 302. - Recently subsp. exalbescens has been reported as occurring in N. Europe, in Fennoscandia formerly named M. squamosum Laest. (Aiken and McNeill in Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 80/1980, p. 213-222; Faegri in Taxon 31/1982, p. 467-471). This subspecies seems to have, on the whole, more northern and eastern distribution than subsp. spicatum.