Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Eleocharis macrostachya Britton
- Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
- Flowering: June-August
- Field Marks: This spikerush may be distinguished by its rhizomes, stiff, round stems that are not thread-like, and yellow-brown achenes with a flattened tubercle.
- Habitat: Wet ditches, wet meadows, around lakes and ponds.
- Habit: Perennial herb with branched, reddish rhizomes.
- Stems: Upright, smooth, stiff, round, unbranched, to 3 1/2 feet tall.
- Leaves: Reduced to sheaths.
- Flowers: 1 per scale, with several scales per spikelet; spikelet one per stem, lanceoloid, up to 1 1/4 inches long, with the lowest 2-3 scales empty.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Ovary superior; style 2-cleft.
- Fruits: Achenes obovoid, yellow-brown, shiny, up to 1/12 inch long, with a flattened tubercle and subtended by as many as 8 bristles, or bristles sometimes absent.
- Notes: This species is considered by some to be the same as E. palustris. The achenes are eaten by waterfowl.
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