Sparganium emersum

Higher Taxonomy

Family: Typhaceae

Common Name: CATTAIL FAMILY
Habit: Perennial herb, glabrous; monoecious; rhizomes or stolons long; colonial, in wet soil to aquatic. Stem: aerial stem 1, +- cylindric. Leaf: basal and cauline, alternate, 2-ranked, spongy; sheath open; ligule 0; blade +- linear. Inflorescence: spike-like or of spheric, unisexual heads; staminate flowers or heads distal to pistillate ones. Flower: small, densely-packed. Staminate Flower: filaments fused proximally. Pistillate Flower: pistil 1, ovary superior, ovules 1--2(4). Fruit: follicle, splitting in water, or drupe-like.
Genera In Family: 2 genera, +- 32 species: worldwide.
eFlora Treatment Author: S. Galen Smith
Scientific Editor: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Genus: Sparganium

View Description

Dichotomous Key

Common Name: BUR-REED
Habit: Plants generally submerged except inflorescence, or vegetative when all-submerged (emergent to +- terrestrial); rhizomes, stolons slender. Stem: unbranched proximal to inflorescence. Leaf: blade flat to convex, 3-sided, or abaxially keeled. Inflorescence: heads axillary and terminal, 2--60+; bracts leaf-like, distal reduced. Staminate Flower: stamens 2--8. Pistillate Flower: ovary chambers 1--2(4), stigmas generally 1(2--4). Fruit: drupe-like, spongy; perianth parts attached, style and generally stigmas persistent as beak; floating, water-dispersed.
Etymology: (Probably Greek: swaddling band, for strap-shaped leaves) Note: Fruit head diam including fruit beaks; fruit body lengths except beak, stalk-like base; beak lengths including stigmas.
Reference: Kaul 2000 FNANM 22:271--277
Unabridged Reference: Cook & Nicholls 1986 Bot Helv 96:213--267, 1987 Bot Helv 97:1--44

Sparganium emersum Rehmann

NATIVE
Habit: Plants generally terrestrial to emergent, erect, to 75 cm, or aquatic and limp, to 1(2) m, distal parts floating. Leaf: widest blades 5--13 mm wide, generally 3-angled or keeled proximally; on vegetative plants in deep or fast-flowing water to 2.2 m, 18 mm wide, flat, generally not keeled. Inflorescence: emergent; main axis branches 0; staminate heads 3--7, well separated to crowded in flower; pistillate heads 1--6, proximal in axils, peduncled, distal sessile, 1.3--2.5 cm diam in fruit. Flower: perianth parts not dark-thickened distally; stigma 1--2(2.5) mm. Fruit: body 3.5--4 mm, 2--2.5 mm wide, ellipsoid to fusiform, tapered distally, beak 3--4 mm. Chromosomes: 2n=30.
Ecology: +- Unpolluted freshwater habitats; Elevation: < 2600 m. Bioregional Distribution: NCo, KR, NCoRO, n&c SNH, SnBr, MP; Distribution Outside California: to Alaska, northeastern North America; circumboreal. Flowering Time: Summer Note: Locally common. Plants near coast generally robust, stiff, erect, in wet ground or shallow water; higher elevation inland plants generally slender, limp, +- submerged. Apparently intergrades with Sparganium angustifolium.
Unabridged Synonyms: Sparganium angustifolium Michx. subsp. emersum (Rehmann) Brayshaw; Sparganium chlorocarpum Rydb.; Sparganium chlorocarpum var. acaule (Beeby) Fernald; Sparganium emersum subsp. acaule (Beeby) C.D.K. Cook & M.S. Nicholls
Jepson eFlora Author: S. Galen Smith
Reference: Kaul 2000 FNANM 22:271--277
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)

Previous taxon: Sparganium angustifolium
Next taxon: Sparganium eurycarpum

Botanical illustration including Sparganium emersum

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Citation for this treatment: S. Galen Smith 2012, Sparganium emersum, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=45025, accessed on April 18, 2024.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 18, 2024.

Sparganium emersum

Sparganium emersum

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Geographic subdivisions for Sparganium emersum: NCo, KR, NCoRO, n&c SNH, SnBr, MP	MAP CONTROLS 1. You can change the display of the base map layer control box in the upper right-hand corner. 2. County and Jepson Region polygons can be turned off and on using the check boxes.

(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).	Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria. MAP LEGEND View all CCH records All markers link to CCH specimen records. The original determination is shown in the popup window. Blue markers indicate specimens that map to one of the expected Jepson geographic subdivisions (see left map). Purple markers indicate specimens collected from a garden, greenhouse, or other non-wild location. Yellow markers indicate records that may provide evidence for eFlora range revision or may have georeferencing or identification issues. READ ABOUT YELLOW FLAGS CCH collections by month Duplicates counted once; synonyms included. Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA. Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).