Cladium mariscoides explained

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.

Cladium mariscoides is a perennial herb spreading by means of underground rhizomes. Culms are up to 100cm (00inches) 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.^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]}

Notes and References

1. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16077495#page/392/mode/1up Torrey, John. 1836. Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York 3: 372.
2. http://www.tropicos.org/ImageFullView.aspx?imageid=35622 photo of 1834 specimen of Cladium mariscoidesat Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in Ontario County, New York
3. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15348389#page/14/mode/1up Muhlenberg, Gotthilf Heinrich Ernest. 1817. Descriptio uberior Graminum 4. 1817.
4. Small, J. K. 1933. Manual of the Southeastern Flora i–xxii, 1–1554.
5. Scoggan, H. J. 1978 [1979]. Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae, Monocotyledoneae. 2: 93–545. In Flora of Canada. National Museums of Canada, Ottawa.
6. 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.