This is a native aquatic perennial; it grows up to 5 feet tall. Dense colonies of large arrow-shaped leaves, up to 18 inches long (A), rise up from tubers in shallow water long before the flowers emerge on separate stalks. They bear showy white flowers with 3 rounded petals arranged in whorled groups of 3 flowers per whorl (A,B). Male and female flowers are separate, usually on the same plant, the lower whorls female and the upper ones male. Male flowers with their pollen bearing anthers have yellow centers while the females have a bulbous green center composed of confluent carpels.  Immediately below each flower are small, boat-shaped bracts (C). The seed pods develop in the fall (D). A similar less common arrowhead species (Sagittaria brevirostra), has longer, lance-shaped bracts.