General: Bur-reed family (Sparaniaceae).

American bur-reed

Sparganium americanum (SPAM)

branched bur-reed

Sparganium androcladum (SPAN)

narrowleaf bur-reed

Sparganium angustifolium (SPAN2)

simplestem bur-reed

Sparganium erectum (SPER)

broadfruit bur-reed

Sparganium eurycarpum (SPEU)

floating bur-reed

Sparganium fluctuans (SPFL)

clustered bur-reed

Sparganium glomeratum (SPGL)

northern bur-reed

Sparganium hyperboreum (SPHY)

small bur-reed

Sparganium natans (SPNA)

These bur-reed species are native, herbaceous marsh or pond plants with rootstocks. The leaves are alternate, stiff and erect or limp and floating, linear, and internally septate (The Great Plains Flora Association 1986). The individual flowers are small and occur in separate male (staminate) or female (pistillate) globular clusters on the same plant. (Steyermark 1963).

Distribution: A genus of twenty or more Sparanium species is widely distributed in temperate and colder latitudes of the eastern and western hemispheres, and in eastern North America (Braun 1967). For current distribution, please consult the Plant profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.

Sparganium americanum Nutt.:
Canada (North America)
United States (North America)
Colombia (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

St. Pierre and Miquelon; Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.; Mexico (Durango).

Canada

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

This species grows best on wet ground in rich soil. It prefers full sun but can tolerate some shade. Sparanium species is mostly found in muddy or shallow water of swamps and ponds. For current distribution, please consult the Plant profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site

Plants slender and grasslike to usually robust, to 1 m; leaves and inflorescences usually emergent. Leaves erect but not especially stiff, usually keeled only near base, flattened distally, to 1 m  6--12 mm. Inflorescences: rachis 0--3-branched, erect; bracts somewhat ascending, not basally inflated; pistillate heads 1--3 on branches, 2--6 on main rachis, axillary, not contiguous at anthesis, sessile, 1.5--2.5 cm diam. and often contiguous in fruit; staminate heads usually 3--7 on each branch, 4--10 on main rachis, not or barely contiguous. Flowers: tepals often with prominent subapical dark spot, entire to crenulate or emarginate; stigma 1, linear-lanceolate. Fruits tan to dark greenish brown, dull, subsessile to stipitate, fusiform, sometimes barely constricted near equator, body not strongly faceted, 3.5--5(--7) mm, tapering to beak; beak usually curved, not hooked, 3--5 mm; tepals attached at base, reaching equator or slightly beyond. Seeds 1.

Shores and shallow neutral-to-alkaline waters, sometimes forming large stands; 0--800m.

Propagation by Seed: Sparanium seeds should be sown as soon as they are ripe in the greenhouse. This species should be placed in pots standing in two to three centimeters of water. Place the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle

and gradually increase the depth of water with plant growth. Plant Sparanium sp to their permanent positions in the summer.

Large divisions can be planted directly into their permanent positions. While allowing smaller potted divisions to grow in a cold frame until they are well established and ready for summer out-planting to their permanent location..

Flowering late spring--summer (Apr--Jun southwestward, May--Sep southeastward, Jun--Aug northward).

The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.


No available public DNA sequences.

Download FASTA File

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 1
Specimens with Barcodes: 2
Species With Barcodes: 1

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N5 - Secure

Please consult the Plants Web site and your State Department of Natural Resources for this plant’s current status, such as, state noxious status and wetland indicator values.

Contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil Conservation Service) office for more information. Look in the phone book under ”United States Government.” The Natural Resources Conservation Service will be listed under the subheading “Department of Agriculture.”

Seeds of most aquatic plants should be sown as soon as they are ripe. The seeds lose viability quickly if it is allowed to dry out. If immediate sowing is inconvenient, store seeds in moist peat, or substitute in a plastic bag and keep frost-free (Heuser 1997).

Ethnobotanic..The Klamath Indians dug the tubers (possibly Sparganium angustifolium, S. erectum, and/or S. eurycarpum) produced in late autumn from the creeping rootstocks of some of the species of this genus, and use them as food (Steyermark 1963). An infusion of Sparanium erectum can be mixed with other plant leaves and used in the treatment of chills (Moerman 1998). A decoction of Sparganium stoloniferum root was used in the treatment of chest pains and abdominal pain (Yeung 1985).

For differences between this highly polymorphic species and the similar but less variable Sparganium androcladum, see the discussion under that species. Also see the discussion under S. emersum. 

 E. O. Beal (1977) recognized three morphologically overlapping races of Sparganium americanum: the coastal race, growing in the lower coastal plain from Virginia to Florida and Louisiana, and north in the Mississippi Embayment to Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri, has leaves wide for the species, rachises 2--5-branched, and stigmas 1.5+ mm long; the Appalachian race, growing in the Appalachian region from Maine to western North Carolina and in the Ozark Mountains, has leaves narrow for the species, rachises simple to sparingly branched, and stigmas 0.9 mm or less; and the ubiquitous race, growing throughout the range of the species with increasing robustness southward, morphologically overlaps the others.