The ranakel is a well-known and much hated waterplant. The plant grows very quick in still, shallow waters when the temperatures rise, and will overgrow ponds and pools in just a few days. The roots grow deep into the soil, and are hard to remove. In the autumn, the plant dies and turns brown. Leaves and branches will drift on the water and prevent it from freezing over in winter, which is a plague to the people who use ponds to make ice. The dead ranakel makes the water bitter, so it can’t be used for drinking either.

Of course, the ranakel is the perfect plant to use when you need water in winter for other purposes than consumption. But the neighbours won’t like it, the flowers turn into bunches of small satchets, that are blown over the neighbourhood by the wind. They will fall into nearby water and pollute it the next year, to the distress of the owners of the water.

The leaves of the ranakel are slimey under water, but the leaves on top of the plant drift on the water and are hardened by the warmth of the sun. Sudzi used the leaves for plates. Frogs and other water-fauna live on the leaves.