Pickerelweed, Pontederia cordata, is one of those plants that are easily overlooked and its beauty taken for granted. Pickerelweed's electric blue lights up a sea of green.

Pickerelweed is a Florida native found in almost every county of the state. It's also native of eastern and central North America as far north as Quebec and Ontario and as far west Minnesota, Kansas and Texas, with Oregon thrown in for good measure. It's also native to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and South America.

It is an aquatic plant, growing in and along shallow, still or slow-moving bodies of water like marshes, swamps and sloughs. It is capable of forming large, dense colonies, spreading via rhizomes, or underground stems. The resulting mass protects the shoreline against erosion while providing cover for birds, fish, snakes, frogs and insects.

Pickerelweed is medium-sized in the panoply of wetland plants, growing to about two to four feet tall. The leaves are large, long and narrow but can vary in shape and size considerably The real tell on pickerelweed is its single spike with hundreds of tiny blue flowers that appear from March into November. The collective effect is spectacular, at least in our eyes. Rarely, the flowers are white.

The spikes attract hungry bees and butterflies, skippers in particular. Deer, muskrats and geese eat the vegetation, while the nut-like seeds are gobbled by birds, who return the favor by helping with dispersal.