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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Creeping Spikerush
Eleocharis macrostachya Britton

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

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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