This lettuce-looking, Pantropical, free-floating, stoloniferous aquatic plant with feathery roots can clog waterways by their rampant growth. The leaf is spongy with 7-16 ribs; apex is rounded with aerenchyma toward the base. The leaves are covered with fine, waxy, water repellant hairs. The flower is creamy-white, small, hidden in the leaf axils, and, like other Araceae, consists of a spathe and spadix.