Russia Flora: Plant: Up to 1 m tall, with tuber-like thickened base, from which arise leaves arranged in rosette and a leafless scape bearing inflorescence. Leaves: Leaf blade lanceolate-ovate, rounded or slightly cordate at base, rarely (when growing in streams and rivers with rapid current) partly lanceolate and narrowed cuneately toward base. Inflorescence: Panicle-like, with bracts at base of branches. Flowers: Petals 3.2-6.2 mm long and 3-6.2 mm wide, white with pink or lilac tinge, rarely pinkish-white. Anthers 1.7-3.1 mm long. Styles in flowers and fruits 0.5-1 mm long. Fruit: Fruitlets 1.7-3.1 mm long; thickened marginal part of their lateral sides gradually transitions into opaque coriaceous-membranous part. Chromosome number: 2n=14 (Probatova, Sokolovskaya, 1984b). Flowering in July-September.
Distribution: Kamchatka, Northern Sakhalin, Upper Zeya, Lower Zeya, Bureya, Amgun, Ussuri, Southern Sakhalin (Fig. 100). Found along water bodies, in marshes, ditches, and roadside depressions.
General distribution: European part, Caucasus, Western and Eastern Siberia, Central Asia; Scandinavia, Central and Atlantic Europe, Mediterranean, Asia Minor, Iran, Dzungaria-Kashgar, Mongolia, Japanese-Chinese (introduced), North America (introduced), South America (introduced), Australia (introduced), Africa (introduced). Described from Europe.
Note: We tend to consider this species in the Soviet Far East as introduced but fully naturalized plant. Similarly, it has naturalized and continues to actively spread in America, Australia, and New Zealand. In Southern Sakhalin, the presence of A. orientale is not excluded.