General: Aquatic perennial herb from a rhizome; stems 15-60 cm tall.
Leaves: All basal, tufted, linear, 10-30 (40) cm long, 0.5-2 mm wide, flat; ligules usually 2-lobed, 0.5-1.5 mm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence elongated and leafless, usually longer than the leaves with many, short-stalked flowers; perianth parts usually 6, 1.5-2 mm long; stamens usually 6; fertile ovaries 3.
Fruits: Dry, linear to slenderly club-shaped, 6-7 (9) mm long, splitting into 3 carpels at maturity; seeds 1 per carpel, more or less angled.
1. Fertile ovaries 3; fruits linear to slenderly club-shaped.................Triglochin palustris
1. Fertile ovaries 6, fruits oblong to egg-shaped
2. Ligules entire or nearly so, (1) 1.5-5 mm long; leaf blades somewhat compressed; plants (10) 30-100 (120) cm tall...........................Triglochin maritima
2. Ligules 2-lobed, 0.5-1 mm long; leaf blades more or less cylindric; plants 5-15 (30) cem tall.....................Triglochin concinna
Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
Habitat / Range
Tidal marshes, saline and alkaline ponds, wet meadows and fens in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; common in BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains and S of 55degreeN, less frequent northward and along the coast; cosmopolitan, N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to ME, NY, OH, IA, NE, NM, UT, NV and CA; Greenland, Eurasia, S America.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
