Marsh Arrowgrass

Marsh arrowgrass can grow in saline conditions, but doesn't tolerate salt as much as its family member sea arrowgrass. It grows vertically out of the ground, its flowers are spread further apart along the stem and it doesn't form the clusters that sea arrowgrass makes. It can be found along the banks of ditches, along (brackish) ditches and in damp hay-fields and sometimes even in tremulous peat grounds. It is found in the dunes in wet valleys. On beach plains surrounded by dunes, marsh arrow-grass is especially found in the border regions between salt and fresh water.

The Marsh Arrow-grass usually grows in fresh water habitats in the mountain¬ous regions of W. Pakistan. A good forage plant for cattles, sheep and goats.

Erect perennial with (10-) 20-50 cm. long scapes, usually in fresh water marshes or water channels, glabrous, somewhat fleshy; plant base looking somewhat bulb-like with dense fibrous roots, but rhizome long, slender. Leaves linear, semi-terete, usually deeply furrowed on upper surface towards the base, usually about half as long as the scapes, 2-3 mm. wide, sheathing at the base; sheath 5-8 cm. long, slightly broader than the blade. Scapes elongating in fruit; racemes 30-80-flowered, terminal, much elongated after flowering, usually 20-30 cm. long in fruit. Flowers c. 3 mm. across. Perianth segments 1.5-2 (—2.5) mm. long, 1-1.5 (—2) mm broad, elliptic-ovate, greenish or whitish with usually purplish margins, glabrous. Stamens about half the length of perianth segments, almost sessile; anthers purplish, 0.5 mm. long. Pedicel stiff, filiform, 3-5 mm long, ascend¬ing, somewhat appressed to the axis in fruit but shorter than it. Fruit linear¬clavate or oblong-linear, tapering towards the base, (6—) 8-10 mm. long, 1 mm broad, ± appressed to the axis, glabrous, separating into three mericarps (each with 1 fertile and 1 sterile carpel together) from below upwards when ripe leaving a triangular axis but mericarps remaining connate with stigma after dehiscence; each mericarp somewhat terete, subulate, tapering-aristate at the base, 1-seeded and 1-loculed; seed nearly as long as the carpel, brown, linear-ellipsoid.

Plants with fibrous strands of leaves at base, 9--42.5 cm. Leaves erect from sheath, shorter than scapes, 6--24.5 cm; sheath 3.5--5 cm  1.5--5 mm, ligule not hoodlike, unlobed; blade 0.8--2.9 mm wide, apex acute. Inflorescences: scape often purple near base, mostly exceeding leaves, 5.5--27.2 cm  1--2.1 mm; racemes 5.1--21.4 cm  2--5 mm; pedicel 0.4--4.5  0.1--0.5 mm. Flowers: tepals elliptic, 1.1--1.6  0.7--0.9 mm, apex round; pistils 6, 3 fertile, 3 sterile. Fruits: fruiting receptacles with wings; schizocarps linear, 7--8.3  0.8--1.2 mm; mericarps linear, weakly ridged abaxially, 6.5--8.5  0.5--1.5 mm, beak erect, 0.3 mm. 2n = 24.

N. temperate regions, Himalaya & Tibet.

Distribution: Europe, Asia, N. Africa and America.

Greenland; St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Nunavut, Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Ariz., Calif., Colo., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Maine, Mich., Minn., Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.H., N.Mex., N.Y., N.Dak., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.Dak., Utah, Wash., Wis., Wyo.; Mexico; South America; Eurasia.

2900-4700 m

Fl. Per. May-Sept.

Flowering summer and early fall.

Coastal and mountain marsh areas and moist alkaline meadows; 0--3700m.

Triglochin palustris L. Sp. PI. 338. 1753
Rootstock short, oblique, with slender fugacious stolons. Leaves linear, shorter than the scapes, 12-30 cm. long, tapering to a sharp tip; ligule very short; scapes 1 or 2, slender, striate, 0.2-0.6 m. high; racemes 12-30 cm. long; pedicels capillary, in fruit erectappressed and 5-7 mm. long ; perianth-segments 6, greenish-yellow ; anthers 6, sessile ; pistil of 3 united carpels, 3-celled, 3-ovuled ; stigmas sessile; fruit 6-7 mm. long, about 1.5 mm. thick, linear or clavate ; ripe carpels separating from the axis and hanging suspended from its apex, the axis 3-winged.
Type locality : Europe.
Distribution : Greenland to Alaska, south to Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, and Indiana ;

Triglochin palustris or marsh arrowgrass is a species of flowering plant in the arrowgrass family Juncaginaceae. It is found in damp grassland usually on calcareous soils, fens and meadows. The species epithet palustris is Latin for "of the marsh" and indicates its common habitat. It has a circumboreal distribution, occurring throughout northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. It can be found locally in the British Isles especially the north.