Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Narrow-leaved Bur-reed
Sparganium angustifolium
Bur-Reed/Cattail family (Typhaceae)

Wispy Narrowleaf Burreed (Sparganium angustifolium) stems and leaves float in undulating patterns on mountain ponds. The plant is fairly common on shallow ponds in the mountainous areas of Colorado and is also found from Alaska to California to New Mexico, across Canada, and in Europe and Asia. Sparganium angustifolium has two-to-five male pollen bearing balls of flowers at the top of the flowering stem and 2-4 female bearing ball of flowers near the bottom.

Linnaeus named this in 1753 and the species was named by Andre Michaux in 1803 from Canadian specimens. "Sparganium" is from the Greek for "swaddling band" and apparently refers to the long narrow leaves. "Angustifolium" is Latin for "narrow leaves."


©2010 Keir Morse

Description

marsh or water plants with creeping , stems to 20" tall floating and elongated or erect, or branched. Leaves very narrow, flat but usually rounded on back, not . Flowers , in dense globular heads on the upper portion of the stem, the above the with the subtended by leafy . simple with 2-5 heads and 2-4 heads. -like, minute. and about 1/25" long. solitary. of in heads.

Field Marks

Floating narrow and long leaves and stems with white globular flower clusters.

© Al Schneider

scale -- A very small leaf around a dormant bud. Also other things that might remind one of fish scales on the surface of ferns, stems and the like.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

achene -- a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. For example, a rose hip holds a few achenes.

perianth -- the non-reproductive part of the flower such as petals and sepals.

pistillate -- a flower that lacks stamens is pistillate, or female. One that lacks pistils is said to be staminate, or male.

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem.

Bracts are modified leaves associated with a flower.

staminate flowers -- Having only male, pollen producing floral parts.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

In a pea flower the two bottom petals are fused together forming a boat-like structure called the keel. The glumes of grasses may have a sharp projecting ridge like the keel of a boat.

globose -- Shaped like a ping pong ball, only smaller.

The anther is a pad at the end of the stamen that holds the pollen.

stigma - The tip of a pistil that receives the pollen.

ovules -- the part of the ovary of seed plants that contains the female germ cell. After fertilization an ovule becomes the seed.

genus -- A subdivision of a botanical Family in which all members have a significant number of similar characteristics.

Imperfect flowers are unisexual with only stamens or pistils, but not both.

A simple leaf blade is one that is not divided into separate leaflets.

rhizome -- root-like stems that may either grow horizontally at the soil surface or in other orientations underground.