''Eleocharis quinqueflora'' is a species of
spikesedge known by the common names fewflower spikerush and few-flowered spike-rush.
It is widespread across
Europe,
North Africa, northern
Asia (
Siberia,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
Kazakhstan,
Himalayas, etc.), and
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 ...
(
Canada,
Greenland, northern and western
US). There are also isolated populations in
Argentina and
Chile.
''Eleocharis quinqueflora''is a resident of wet meadows,
bog
A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...
s,
hot springs, and other moist places. This is a
rhizomatous perennial approaching a maximum height of 40 centimeters. The thin, flattened stems are surrounded by papery reddish to green leaf sheaths and topped with dark
inflorescences. The
spikelet is lance-shaped to oval and less than a centimeter long. It contains two to seven flowers, each of which is covered with a brown or black
bract
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...
. The fruit is a yellow-brown
achene
An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and indehiscent (they do not ope ...
two or three millimeters long.
Flora of North America, ''Eleocharis quinqueflora'' (Hartmann) O. Schwarz, Mitt. Thüring. Bot. Ges. 1: 89. 1949.
/ref>
References
External links
Jepson Manual TreatmentPhoto gallery
{{Taxonbar, from=Q161293
quinqueflora
Flora of North America
Flora of Chile
Flora of Argentina
Flora of Europe
Flora of North Africa
Flora of Asia
Plants described in 1767