**NOTE - Names in blue/purple have a picture of species seen in class, others have may a specimen within the same genus but a different species.  It should be mentioned that subtle differences may exist even within a species, so when in conflict always refer to live specimens seen in the lab!**

Cyperaceae: Sedge Family
Carex sp.  -  stems generally 3 sided, leaves 3-ranked, flowers subtended by scales; staminate and pistillate flowers may be in separate spikes, in different parts of the same spike or scattered and scarcely distinguishable in each spike; fruit an achene, perigynia important to species identification; achene enclosed in a perigynia; habitats variable, meadows to shores to shallow water.

Eleocharis sp. - spike rush Click here for a species from this genus    Click here for another species
leaves are without blades and represented by sheaths at the base of the stem; stems may be round or angled; flowers are solitary terminal spikelets, flower has subtending scale which hides it from view, arranged spirally on the axis of the spikelet with overlapping scales, the style base of each ovary persists as a tubercle on the mature fruit; identification within the genus is impossible unless the achene is mature because species identification is based on the tubercle characteristics; shallow and deep marshes, muddy, sandy shores, ponds, stream banks, wet meadows, swales.

Scirpus validus - softstem bulrush
Stems smooth, simple, and round in cross-section (terete) , leaves reduced to sheaths at the base of stem, spikelets red-brown clustered in a panicle like head, scales ovate with a short awn; achene flat on 1 side with a small beak; shallow water, shores.

Equisetaceae: Horsetail Family
Equisetum sp. - horsetail, scouring rush Click here for species from this genus
stems erect, hollow and jointed; leaves reduced to scales arranged in whorls at the nodes of the stem; sometimes a terminal spore-bearing cone present; streambanks, meadows, moist woods, ditches, roadsides, and along railroads.

Iridaceae: Iris Family
Iris versicolor - northern blue flag iris Click here for flower picture
a monocot; perennial from underground rhizomes; leaves flat, linear and sword-like, also waxy to the touch; flowers large and conspicuous, sepal larger than petal, blue-violet in color; fruit a capsule; marshes, shores, wet meadows, bogs.

Juncaceae: Rush Family
Juncus sp. - rush
grow from rhizomes in clumps or colonies; stems round and smooth; leaves may be basal or originate from the stem, alternate, and round in cross-section, or leaves may be reduced to sheaths at the base of the stem,  NO ligule at junction of blade and sheath like the grass leaf; flowers flowers resemble a lily (3 sepals, 3 petals, 3 or 6 stamens and a capsule), have a true perianth (6 tepals);  not three-sided like a Carex; habitat variable, shores, streambanks, fens, wet meadow, ditches, swales; some terrestrial.

Lythraceae: Loosetrife Family
Lythrum salicaria - purple loosestrife
stems slender, not woody (can be woody as they age); leaves opposite, not petioled, somewhat of heart-shaped at base (cordate) ; flowers numerous in long purple spikes in the axils of reduced upper leaves; many seeded with fruit a capsule; habitat plant is an exotic introduced from Europe and is highly invasive.

Poaceae (Graminae) - Grass Family
Phragmites australis - common reed Click here for a different species from this genus
tall reed; found in clumps growing from rhizomes; stems hollow with purple internodes; leaves with open sheaths and a white ligule; flowers in spikelets with panicles, feathery inflorescence; forming plume-like masses, spikelets have a hairy rachilla; glumes unequal in length; marshes, shores, streams.

Polygonaceae: Smartweed Family
Polygonum sp. - smartweed Click here for species from this genus
leaves long, narrow, lance-shaped; flower pink or whitish in racemes borne in leaf axils or terminal, without petals, made up of sepals; “knotted” or zigzag stems, swollen nodes or joints with papery sheath (ocrea) at each joint; fruit an achene; ponds, lakes, marshes, disturbed areas.

Typhaceae: Cat-tail Family
Typha latifolia - common / broad-leaved cattail
leaves flat, thick and wide; stems stout, underground stems spread rapidly; flowers small and unisexual, arranged into close cylindrical spikes which consist of an upper region of staminate (male) flowers and a lower region of pistillate (female) flowers in a dark brown spike (the male flower falls off after pollination), staminate and pistillate portions are usually touching; wet ground shallow and deep waters; sign of disturbance; food for muskrats and cover for many types of wildlife.