re:grass-like plant

howieb1991@aol.com
Sat, 12 Feb 94 19:51:13 EST

Mathew,
About your grass-like plant growing in sphagnum. Horsetails are in the
Horsetail Family Equisitaceae, and the genus is Equisitum. Horsetails are
common weedy plants,often found in wet waste areas and ditches, however there
are some native species that grow in bogs.
Horsetails have jointed stems, and a creeping horizontal rootstoock
(rhizome), not a bulb.
I agree with Erkki thats its probably not a quillwort Isoetes, But you
can tell for sure if you cut open the "bulb" or corm. Quillworts have 4 large
longitudinal air cavities in it "bulb" that looks like a cross in a circle if
you cut the root in a cross section.
The Eriophorum would eventually grow a puffy fuzz like "flower" hence the
name cotton grass. The grass- like leaves would be clasping the main stem. It
is the most likely of the three to be growing in that ecosystem.
Howie

This can also be my letter of introduction. I am Howie B, a botanist from the
Pacific Northwest. My interest lies in many aspects of wild plants, but I
know little of carniverous plants except for there beauty and uniqueness. I
teach plant identification and environmentally sound plant collecting, and am
active in rare and endangered plant searches.

HowieB1993@aol.comm