This is a medium sized, downy perennial which grows in damp meadows, on riverbanks and mountain ledges. It has nodding, bell-shaped, dusty pink flowers (8-15mm) with purple sepals which are on show from April to September. The basal leaves are pinnate with trifoliate leaves further up on the stem. At the base of these stem leaves are small stipules. The seeds are in fluffy, feathery bur-like heads which contain hooked styles. Water Avens is a native plant which belongs to the Rosaceae family. It hybridises with Wood Avens.
It was on Ballycahill, Co Clare in 1981 that I first came across Water Avens. I photographed it beside the Caher river in the Burren in 2005.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
