Jepson eFlora: Taxon page
Vascular Plants of California
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Isoetes
QUILLWORT

Higher Taxonomy
Family: IsoetaceaeView Description 

Common Name: QUILLWORT FAMILY
Habit: Perennial herb, aquatic to terrestrial. Stem: buried, corm-like, 2--3-lobed, corky, brown. Leaf: simple, in grass-like tufts, spirally arranged on stem top, erect to spreading, < 30 cm, linear above base. Sporangia: solitary, embedded in wide leaf base, < 1 cm, +- covered by a translucent membrane, male or female; male spores > 10000, < 0.045 mm, +- bean-shaped, gray or brown in mass; female spores 20--200, 0.2--0.7 mm, spheric, white, +- smooth, ridged, tubercled, or prickly.
Genera In Family: 1 genus, 200+ species: worldwide.
eFlora Treatment Author: W. Carl Taylor & Jon E. Keeley
Scientific Editor: Alan R. Smith, Thomas J. Rosatti.
Isoetes

Etymology: (Greek: evergreen, from habit of some species) Note: Perhaps most poorly known lycophyte genus. Mature female spores, found in decaying leaf bases or soil, critical for identification, as are hand lens for texture when dry, microscope with micrometer for size. Hybrids (spores of variable size, shape) common between aquatic species, making them less distinct.
Jepson eFlora Author: W. Carl Taylor & Jon E. Keeley
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)
Key to Isoetes

Previous taxon: Isoetaceae
Next taxon: Isoetes bolanderi

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Citation for this treatment: W. Carl Taylor & Jon E. Keeley 2012, Isoetes, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=9464, accessed on December 15, 2019.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2019, Jepson eFlora, http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on December 15, 2019.