waterleaf a N. American marsh plant, which makes a pleasant wild salad vegetable. The most important species, hairy waterleaf or ‘woollen breeches’, is Hydrophyllum appendiculatum and grows in the eastern and southern USA. Early white settlers, following the Indians’ example, made use of it, and it is still gathered each spring in Kentucky.
Virginia waterleaf, John’s cabbage, Indian salad, or Shawnee (or Shawanese) salad, H. virginicum, is similar. H. occidentale is a species of the western states, where it has been eaten as ‘western-squaw lettuce’.
