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Golden-club

Orontium aquaticum

Found in ponds, lakes and their shores; streams, rivers and their banks; swamps; pocosins and bay forests; freshwater tidal marshes. Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Northern Tier edition What its natural habitat tells you

33
Good

Native to Virginia. How scores work Is it native here?

Profile 100%

Height
1–2 feet
Spread
1–2.5 feet
Light
Full sun, Partial shade
Soil moisture
Moist to standing water

Space about 2 ft apart from its recorded spread, about 25 per 100 sq ft. Enter your bed size for a count

Will it fit your yard?

At a glance

Life cycle
Perennial
Leaves
Deciduous
Bloom
February to May
Fruiting season
May to July

Recorded in 57 Virginia counties.

Natural habitats

Places it grows wild. Not a planting requirement. Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.

1 of 5

Ponds, lakes and their shores

Yellow butterwort beside a moss-hung coastal pond
Regional / representative. Shown: Southern coastal pond margins, Florida and Louisiana to North Carolina; state not identified, a neighboring state.Yellow butterwort beside a moss-hung coastal pond, Marian Ellis Rowan, 1901. Public domain. Source record.

Streams, rivers and their banks

Watauga Falls
Named place / source context. Shown: Watauga Falls, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Watauga Falls, Illustrator/engraver not confidently attributed; reproduced in Zeigler and Grosscup, The Heart of the Alleghanies (1883), 1883. Public domain. Source record.

Swamps

View, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina
Named place / source context. Shown: Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, as titled by Museum of Fine Arts Boston; nineteenth-century artistic interpretation, a neighboring state.View, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, Regis Francois Gignoux, 1850. Public domain. Source record.

Pocosins and bay forests

Dense low pocosin
Dense low pocosin. Shown: Shaken Creek Preserve, Pender and Onslow Counties, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Dense low pocosin, Robert Thornhill, undated. CC BY 4.0. Source record.

Freshwater tidal marshes

Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.

All habitats

Also found with this plant

Wildlife whose habitat models include habitats this plant grows in, in Virginia. Shared habitat, not food. 144 animals.

All wildlife of Virginia

Ecological relationships

Who uses this plant?

What these records mean

4CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including VA

Genus host records with ranges including VA · Orontium

  • Elophila icciusalisPondside Pyralid, Pondside Crambid
  • Elophila obliteralisWaterlily Leafcutter Moth
  • Parapoynx maculalisPolymorphic Pondweed Moth
  • Parapoynx seminealisFloating-Heart Waterlilly Moth, Waterlily Casebearer
Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
3BeesSoutheastern regional records

Southeastern regional records · Orontium

Individual names are not available yet.

Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
0Specialist beesPollen specialists
—BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim

No records yet · Ants · Beetles · Flies · Adult butterflies / moths · Other wasps · Other insects

Growing and identification

Plant details

Family
Araceae
Hardiness
Zones 5a–10b
Soil pH
Acidic
Flower color
Yellow, green or white
Fruit begins
May
Fruit ends
July

Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.

Growing sources and scope
Also known as

Bog Torches; Golden Club; Never Wet

Conservation status

Virginia rankS5
Global rankG5
VA statusNot verified
Federal statusNot verified

Conservation source Global and federal source

In your garden

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How to check your spot

Sources