Coastal Arrowhead vs Long-tailed Sylph

Sagittaria graminea compared with Aglaiocercus kingii

Key Differences

Coastal Arrowhead is Not Evaluated while Long-tailed Sylph is Least Concern.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Coastal Arrowhead	Long-tailed Sylph
Kingdom	Plantae (Plants)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum	Magnoliophyta (Flowering Plants)	Chordata (Chordates)
Class	Liliopsida (Monocots)	Aves (Birds)
Order	Alismatales (Alismatales)	Apodiformes (Apodiformes)
Family	Alismataceae	Trochilidae
Genus	Sagittaria	Aglaiocercus
Species	Sagittaria graminea	Aglaiocercus kingii

Conservation Status

Coastal Arrowhead

NE — Not Evaluated

Long-tailed Sylph

LC — Least Concern

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Coastal Arrowhead	Long-tailed Sylph
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Coastal Arrowhead

Habitat

Typically found in grasslands, wetlands, forests, and cultivated landscapes.

Range

Widely distributed across Asia (China, Japan), Europe (6 countries), and North America (United States).

Long-tailed Sylph

Habitat

Typically found in various aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic environments.

Range

Distributed across Colombia, Ecuador, Norway, and Venezuela.

Coastal Arrowhead

Sagittaria graminea, the coastal arrowhead or grass-leaved arrowhead, is an aquatic or semi-aquatic perennial herb in the family Alismataceae native to wetland habitats across a wide geographic range including eastern North America, parts of Asia including China and Japan, and isolated populations in Europe. The species inhabits shallow water margins, muddy shores, freshwater marshes, slow-moving streams, ditches, and pond edges, where it often forms dense emergent colonies. Sagittaria graminea is distinguished from other arrowheads by its narrow, grass-like submerged and emergent leaves that lack the pronounced arrowhead shape characteristic of the genus when leaves are fully emergent, though aerial leaves may have small basal lobes. The plant produces white three-petaled flowers arranged in whorls on tall flowering stems, with male flowers above and female flowers below. It is assessed as Not Evaluated by the IUCN. The tubers of arrowheads have historically been consumed as a starchy food by Indigenous peoples across North America. The species provides important habitat structure for aquatic invertebrates and waterfowl, and waterfowl consume the seeds and tubers. The name Sagittaria derives from the Latin for arrow, reflecting the classic arrowhead leaf shape seen in other species of the genus.

Long-tailed Sylph

One of the most strikingly ornamented hummingbirds, male long-tailed sylphs have iridescent green plumage and dramatically elongated, ribbon-like outer tail feathers reaching up to 22 cm — over three times the body length. Found in Andean cloud forests of Colombia and Venezuela, they inhabit humid montane forest between 1,400–2,800 meters elevation. Males perform elaborate display flights to attract females. Their extravagant tails are a classic example of sexual selection via female preference.