Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Perennial herbs, rhizomes stout, covered with overlapping scales.

Stems: Stems crowded along rhizome, reddish brown to purple at base, striate, terete (cylindrical), 4–8 dm long, pith solid.

Roots: Roots thick.

Leaves: Leaves simple. Leaves basal, scale-like, bladeless. Margins entire. Sheaths dark reddish brown to purple at base, paler toward apex. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers numerous in usually contracted or sometimes more open, cymose inflorescences up to 8 cm long, appearing lateral, lowest bract terete (cylindrical), appearing to be a continuation of the stem, bracteoles 3, colorless, ca. ¼ as long as perianth. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Perianth parts pale, rigid, narrow, not obscuring the capsule, outer ones ca. 2.5 mm long, inner ones ca. 2 mm long, about as long as capsule, apex long acuminate. Stamens 3; anthers and filaments about equal. Pollen grains remaining in tetrads, surrounded by a common exine. Ovary superior, carpels 1.

Fruit: Capsules pale to medium brown; in contrast to the pale perianth; shiny; 3–celled; ovoid; apex truncate. Seeds pale brown; ca. 0.5 mm long; ca. 3 times longer than wide.

Ploidy: 2n = 40; 42; 80

Habitat: Cultivated and naturalized along margins of ponds and streams; in open boggy sites; and wet areas along trails.

Elevation Range: 1,000–2,000 m.