Cladium mariscoides, called smooth sawgrass, is a plant species native to eastern North America. It has been reported from every US state along the Gulf and Atlantic seashores except Louisiana, as well as every Great Lakes state, plus Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee. It also occurs in every Canadian province except Alberta, British Columbia and Prince Edward Island. The species generally occurs along the shores of wetlands, including coastal salt marshes.[3][4]

Smooth sawgrass
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Cyperaceae
Genus: Cladium
Species:
C. mariscoides
Binomial name
Cladium mariscoides
(Muhl.) Torr.
Synonyms[1][2]
  • Cladium mariscoides f. congestum Fernald
  • Mariscus mariscoides (Muhl.) Kuntze
  • Mariscus mariscoides f. congestus (Fernald) Fernald
  • Schoenus mariscoides Muhl.

Cladium mariscoides is a perennial herb spreading by means of underground rhizomes. Culms are up to 100 centimetres (39 in) tall. Leaves are very narrow, less than 3 mm across. Spikelets are chestnut brown, born in a panicle with 1st and 2nd order branching but not 3rd order. [3][5][6][7][8][9][10]

References

edit
  1. ^ Tropicos
  2. ^ The Plant List
  3. ^ a b Tucker, Gordon C. (2002). "Cladium mariscoides". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 23. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  4. ^ "Cladium mariscoides". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014.
  5. ^ Torrey, John. 1836. Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York 3: 372.
  6. ^ photo of 1834 specimen of Cladium mariscoidesat Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in Ontario County, New York
  7. ^ Muhlenberg, Gotthilf Heinrich Ernest. 1817. Descriptio uberior Graminum 4. 1817.
  8. ^ Small, J. K. 1933. Manual of the Southeastern Flora i–xxii, 1–1554.
  9. ^ Scoggan, H. J. 1978 [1979]. Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae, Monocotyledoneae. 2: 93–545. In Flora of Canada. National Museums of Canada, Ottawa.
  10. ^ Gleason, H. A. & A.J. Cronquist. 1968. The Pteridophytoa, Gymnospermae and Monocotyledoneae. 1: 1–482. In H. A. Gleason New Britton and Brown Illustrated Flora of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada (ed. 3). New York Botanical Garden, New York.