Home / Anomalous_Items / Aquatic_Macrophytes / Emergent_Leaves / Eriocaulon
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Name derivation:
‘Wool stalk’: Ancient Greek εριον, erion, meaning 'wool', and καυλός, caulos, meaning 'stalk'.
Classification:
Eriocaulon Linneaus; approximately 400 species descriptions are recognized. Order Poales; Family Eriocaulaceae. Monocot; mainly perennial.
Morphology:
Rooted in flooded sandy to silty soils or sediments, usually <1 m deep. Leaves are bracts on the sediment surface that radiate from the center. Floral shoots are emergent up to 70-80 cm above the water surface, and produce a compound floral head with a mix of imperfect flowers; sometimes the males are more central and the females more peripheral on the floral head. White petals usually have a black gland near the tip. Wind pollinated. Details of morphology and anatomy of E. septangulare, including excellent sketches and a photographic plate, by C. Leighton Hare (1950) found online.
Similar genera:
Habitat:
Globally distributed, tropics to temperate zones. Freshwater or flooded upland soils. Eriocaulon aquaticum (Hill) Druce is native to eastern Canada and NE USA.
References:
Hare, C.L. 1950. The structure and development of Eriocaulon septangulare With. Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Botany 53(354):422-448.