''Scirpus ancistrochaetus'' is a rare species of flowering plant in the sedge family known by the common names barbedbristle bulrush and northeastern bulrush. It is native to the northeastern United States from

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

south to

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. It used to be found in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

but it is now thought to be

extirpated Local extinction, also known as extirpation, refers to a species (or other taxon) of plant or animal that ceases to exist in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinct ...

there.''Scirpus ancistrochaetus''.
Center for Plant Conservation. It was also believed extirpated from the state of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, but at least one population has been rediscovered in Steuben County in 2010.Smith, K. J. and S. Young. (2011)
Rediscovery of two federally listed rare plant species in New York.
New York Natural Heritage Program.USFWS

Press Release. It is threatened by the loss and degradation of its

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

habitat. It is a federally listed

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

. This bulrush produces clumps of upright or leaning stems from a fibrous

rhizome 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 ...

. The stems sometimes have axillary

bulb In botany, a bulb is structurally a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

lets. The leaves are up to 68 cm long and are only about 1 cm wide. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s occur at the tips of the stems and sometimes from the uppermost leaf axil on the side of each stem. Each is made up of clusters of spikelets that are oval in shape and up to 0.5 cm long. They are covered in brown scales with green midribs. The flowers emerge from beneath the scales and the plant can be identified by the straight or curving toothed spines on the developing fruit.''Scirpus ancistrochaetus''.
Flora of North America.

Germination Germination is the process by which an organism grows from a seed or spore. The term is applied to the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm, the growth of a sporeling from a spore, such as the spores of fungi, fer ...

occurs around March and

seedling A seedling is a young sporophyte developing out of a plant embryo from a seed. Seedling development starts with germination of the seed. A typical young seedling consists of three main parts: the radicle (embryonic root), the hypocotyl (embry ...

s grow from the rhizomes in May. Flowering occurs in June and July and the fruits develop in July through September.''Scirpus ancistrochaetus''.
The Nature Conservancy. This bulrush sometimes hybridizes with ''

Scirpus hattorianus ''Scirpus'' is a genus of grass-like species in the sedge family Cyperaceae many with the common names club-rush, wood club-rush or bulrush (see also bulrush for other plant genera so-named). They mostly inhabit wetlands and damp locations. Taxo ...

''. This plant grows in a number of types of wetlands, especially those with variable water depths. These include beaver ponds that are shallow or deep, depending on the activity of beavers, sandy depressions and

sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...

s that sometimes fill with

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...

, and sinkhole ponds in solid

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

bedrock. The latter is the most common type of habitat in the southern portion of its range. Sinkhole ponds usually fill with water in the spring and dry out during the summer, but their

hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is calle ...

is variable.Bartgis, R. L. (1992)
The endangered sedge ''Scirpus ancistrochaetus'' and the flora of sinkhole ponds in Maryland and West Virginia.
''Castanea'' 57(1) 46. The bulrush grows at the water's edge, sometimes in a small amount of standing water, but it can be found away from the water or in deeper water up to about a depth of 90 cm. It has been observed experimentally that changes in water level affect the growth of the plant.Lentz, K. A. and W. A. Dunson. (1998)
Water level affects growth of endangered northeastern bulrush, ''Scirpus ancistrochaetus'' Schuyler.
''Aquatic Botany'' 60(3) 213. The most common plant associates are threeway sedge (''Dulichium arundinaceum''), woolgrass (''Scirpus cyperinus'' sens. lat.), rattlesnake mannagrass (''Glyceria canadensis''), and Virginia marsh St. Johns wort (''Triadenum virginicum''). Other plants in the habitat include

American winterberry ''Ilex verticillata'', the winterberry, is a species of holly native to eastern North America in the United States and southeast Canada, from Newfoundland west to Ontario and Minnesota, and south to Alabama. Other names that have been used in ...

(''Ilex verticillata''), blue skullcap (''Scutellaria lateriflora''),

dogbane Dogbane, dog-bane, dog's bane, and other variations, some of them regional and some transient, are names for certain plants that are reputed to kill or repel dogs; "bane" originally meant "slayer", and was later applied to plants to indicate tha ...

(''Apocynum'' sp.), swamp rose (''Rosa palustris''),

lowbush blueberry Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' within the genus ''Vaccinium''. ''Vaccinium'' also includes cranberries, bi ...

(''Vaccinium angustifolium''),

red maple ''Acer rubrum'', the red maple, also known as swamp maple, water maple, or soft maple, is one of the most common and widespread deciduous trees of eastern and central North America. The U.S. Forest Service recognizes it as the most abundant nativ ...

(''Acer rubrum''), black gum (''Nyssa sylvatica''),

white oak The genus ''Quercus'' contains about 500 species, some of which are listed here. The genus, as is the case with many large genera, is divided into subgenera and sections. Traditionally, the genus ''Quercus'' was divided into the two subgenera '' ...

(''Quercus alba''),

eastern white pine ''Pinus strobus'', commonly called the eastern white pine, northern white pine, white pine, Weymouth pine (British), and soft pine is a large pine native to eastern North America. It occurs from Newfoundland, Canada west through the Great Lakes ...

(''Pinus strobus''), yellow water lily (''Nuphar advena''),

buttonwillow Buttonwillow is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in the San Joaquin Valley, in Kern County, California. Buttonwillow is west of Bakersfield, at an elevation of ). The population was 1,508 at the 2010 census, up from 1,266 ...

(''Cephalanthus occidentalis''),

duckweed Lemnoideae is a subfamily of flowering aquatic plants, known as duckweeds, water lentils, or water lenses. They float on or just beneath the surface of still or slow-moving bodies of fresh water and wetlands. Also known as bayroot, they arose ...

(''Lemna minor''), silvery sedge (''Carex canescens''), blister sedge (''Carex vesicaria''), tussock sedge (''Carex stricta''), squarestem spikerush (''Eleocharis quadrangulata''),

cinnamon fern ''Osmundastrum'' is genus of leptosporangiate ferns in the family Osmundaceae with one living species, ''Osmundastrum cinnamomeum'', the cinnamon fern. It is native to the Americas and eastern Asia, growing in swamps, bogs and moist woodlands. I ...

(''Osmundastrum cinnamomeum''), rice cutgrass (''Leersia oryzoides''), water knotweed (''Persicaria amphibia''), and water parsnip (''Sium suave''). The bulrush is threatened by the destruction and degradation of its habitat. This includes outright destruction as the land is cleared for development. It also includes damage to the habitat from road construction and maintenance,

fire suppression Wildfire suppression is a range of firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts in wild land areas require different techniques, equipment, and training from the more familiar structure fire fighting found in populated a ...

activities, maintenance of power lines and other utilities, hydrocarbon development, and all-terrain vehicle use. The plant is affected by changes in the hydrology of its wetland habitat, including agricultural runoff and other surface water runoff contamination and dredging. Natural threats include beaver activity at beaver pond populations and trampling and browsing by larger animals such as deer. As of 2007 there were about 113 known populations of this species, about half of them in decline.

References

External links

USDA Plants Profile
{{Taxonbar, from=Q13952203 ancistrochaetus Flora of North America Plants described in 1962