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Small's Spikerush (Eleocharis smallii)

• Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
• Flowering: June-September.
• Field Marks: This species differs by its creeping rhizomes, its pointed spikelets, and its very slender stems.
• Habitat: Swamps, around ponds and lakes, wet meadows, wet prairies, roadside ditches.
• Habit: Perennial herb with extensive creeping rhizomes.
• Stems: Erect, very slender, smooth, up to 2 feet tall.
• Leaves: 0.
• Flowers: Crowded into a solitary, terminal spikelet; the spikelet lanceoloid, pointed at the tip, up to 2/3 inch long.
• Scales: Broadly lanceolate, tapering to a slender tip.
• Sepals: 0.
• Petals: 0.
• Stamens: 3.
• Pistils: Ovary superior, usually 2-cleft.
• Fruits: Achenes obovoid, dark brown, shiny, up to 1/12 inch long, with a spherical tubercle at the tip about half as wide as the achene.
• Notes: The achenes are eaten by waterfowl.