Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains

50. Butomaceae, The Flowering Rush Family

1. Butomus L. -- Flowering rush

1. Butomus umbellatus L.

Moderately tall, rushlike perennial. Leaves basal, from a stout rhizome, stiff and erect when emersed or lax and floating in deep water, long-linear, to 1 m long, 5-10 mm wide. Inflorescence a many-flowered umbel borne on a scape 1-1.5 m tall; bracts subtending the umbel 4, lance-triangular, acute. Flowers perfect, regular, 2-3 cm across, pink; sepals 3, petaloid; petals 3; stamens 9-many, anthers elongate, filaments slender; pistils 6, simple, whorled, united at the base, stigmas sessile, apical, ovaries superior; pedicels 5-10 cm long. Fruit an indehiscent, many-seeded capsule. Jun--Aug. Emergent in shallow to moderately deep water of lakes and streams; locally introduced and established at widely scattered locations in ND and SD; (Intro. to N.Amer. from Eurasia and adventive here from the Great Lakes region).

References:

Godfread, C. and W. T. Barker.  1975.  Butomaceae:  a new family record
     for North Dakota.  Rhodora 77:160-161.

Stuckey, R. L.  1968.  Distributional history of Butomus umbellatus
     in the western Lake Erie and Lake St. Claire region.  Michigan Bot.
     7:134-142.


Butomus umbellatus, with enlargement of a flower.

Return to Family -- Butomaceae - The Flowering Rush Family