I30 The Ohio Naturalist. [Vol. XIII, No. 6, 



Eriocaulaceae. Pipewort Family. 



Stemless or short-stemmed, perennial or annual, bog or aquatic 

 herbs, with fibrous or spongy roots, monecious or diecious; scape 

 long, bearing a solitary tenninal head of small monosporangiate 

 flowers, each borne in the axil of a scarious bract; perianth seg- 

 ments 6 or 3, stamens 6 or 3; ovulary 2 or 3-locular; fruit a loculo- 

 cidal capsule; seeds orthotropous ; endosperm mealy. 



Eriocaulon L. Pipewort. 



Stemless or short-stemmed, monecious herbs with erect scapes 

 and short, spreading, acuminate, parallel-veined leaves. In- 

 florescence a tomentose head, white to almost black, staminate 

 flowers with 6-4 stamens opposite the perianth segments, ovulary 

 vestigial, carpellate flowers having a stalked or sessile ovulary 

 with no stamens; fruit a capsule. 



1. Eriocaulon septangulare With. Seven-angled Pij^ewort. 

 Monecious aquatic herbs with almost no stem from which arise 

 soft, awl-shaped, pellucid leaves and a weak, twisted scape some- 

 what seven-angled. Involucral bracts glabrous or the innermost 

 ones bearded to the apex, shorter than the flower; outer flowers of 

 the head usually staminate; carpellate flowers generally smaller 

 than the staminate; perianth segments white, bearded. In still 

 water or on shores. No known specimens from Ohio. 



