''Triglochin palustris'' or marsh arrowgrass is a species of flowering plant in the arrowgrass family

Juncaginaceae Juncaginaceae is a Family (biology), family of flowering plants, recognized by most taxonomists for the past few decades. It is also known as the ''arrowgrass'' family. It includes 3 genera with a total of 34 known species (Christenhusz & Byng 2 ...

. It is found in damp grassland usually on calcareous soils,

fen A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetlands along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as mires. T ...

s and meadows. The species

epithet An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

''palustris'' is Latin for "of the marsh" and indicates its common habitat.Archibald William Smith It has a circumboreal distribution, occurring throughout northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. It can be found locally in the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

especially the north.

Description

It is a slender

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

herb 15 to 40 cm tall. It has no

stolons In biology, stolons (from Latin '' stolō'', genitive ''stolōnis'' – "branch"), also known as runners, are horizontal connections between organisms. They may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton; typically, animal stolons are external s ...

, and emits a pleasant aromatic smell when bruised. The leaves are linear, 10 to 20 cm long, rounded on the lower side, deeply grooved on the other. It has many 3 petaled flowers arranged in a long spike, with purple edged perianth segments, 2 mm long. It flowers from June until August. The fruits are club shaped, 10 mm long and 2 mm wide. These plants can adapt to animals attacking it by closing its self in.

Similar species

Triglochin maritimum ''Triglochin maritima'' is a species of flowering plant in the arrowgrass family Juncaginaceae. It is found in brackish marshes, freshwater marshes, wet sandy beaches, fens, damp grassland and bogs. It has a circumboreal distribution, occurring ...

'' (sea arrowgrass) is similar but has the following differences: it has

, is stouter. The leaves are fleshy and not furrowed above. It is not very aromatic. The

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

are more dense and like Sea Plantain. The flowers are fleshier. The fruits are oval, 4 mm long, 2 mm wide.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q158842 Juncaginaceae