Square-stemmed spike-rush

Scirpus quadrangulatus Michaux, Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 30. 1803; Eleocharis quadrangulata var. crassior Fernald; Scirpus albomarginatus Schultes; S. marginatus Muhlenberg

Plants perennial; rhizomes 1.5–4 mm thick, soft to hard, longer internodes 3–8 cm, scales 5–10 mm, tubers absent. Culms acutely quadrangular, (30–)45–105 cm × (1–)2–5.4 mm, soft to firm, internally spongy, transverse septa incomplete; plants never forming filiform, flaccid culms. Leaves: distal leaf sheaths persistent, membranous, apex narrowly acute to acuminate, sometimes prolonged into a bladelike portion to 8 cm. Spikelets not proliferous, (15–)20–76 × 3–5(–6) mm; rachilla joints bearing obscure winglike remnants of floral scales; proximal scale empty, amplexicaulous, (1–)2.2–5.4 mm; floral scales (28–)45–135, 2–3 per mm of rachilla, stramineous to pale brown, usually with pale to dark brown submarginal band, midrib region sometimes greenish, broadly obovate to ovate, (4–)4.5–6.2 × 2.8–5 mm, subcartilaginous, apex rounded to obtuse. Flowers: perianth bristles 6–7, whitish to brown, slender, often markedly unequal, shorter than achene or some equalling tubercle, sparsely retrorsely spinulose to smooth; anthers stramineous to red-brown, 2.3–2.9 mm; styles 3-fid, sometimes 2-fid. Achenes yellow or pale green to brown or purplish, biconvex, obovoid to obpyriform, 1.8–3 × 1.3–2 mm, almost smooth to markedly sculptured at 10–15X, each face with 19–38 rows of almost linear, transversely elongated cells, which are sometimes isodiametric at achene base, apex often constricted to neck 0.3–0.4 mm wide. Tubercles dark brown or whitish, deltoid to high-pyramidal or lanceoloid, 0.7–1.5 × 0.4–1 mm, often spongy.

Fruiting early summer–winter. Shallow water of fresh lake and pond shores, marshes; 10–600 m; Ont.; Ark., Calif., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., La., Mass., Mich., Miss., Mo., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Oreg., Pa., S.C., Tex., Va., W.Va., Wis.; s to c Mexico.

We have not seen voucher specimens for the reports of Eleocharis quadrangulata from Kansas. Plants with greenish achenes, longer bristles, and longer anthers than the average are known from Tennessee.

The tubercles of Eleocharis quadrangulata are often spongy as in E. obtusetrigona.