''Cladium mariscoides'', called smooth sawgrass, is a plant species native to eastern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. 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 A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

. ''Cladium mariscoides'' is a perennial herb spreading by means of underground

rhizomes In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

. Culms are up to tall. Leaves are very narrow, less than 3 mm across. Spikelets are chestnut brown, born in a

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

with 1st and 2nd order branching but not 3rd order. 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.

References

mariscoides Plants described in 1817 Flora of Canada Flora of the United States {{Cyperaceae-stub