BUR-REED 



143 



Bur-reed (Sparganium ramosum (Curt.) = S. erectuni, L.) 



As a typical aquatic form this plant is found in Preglacial beds in 

 Norfolk and Suffolk, Interglacial beds at West Wittering, Sussex, late 

 Glacial and Neolithic beds. It is found to-day in the N. Temperate 

 Zone in Europe, N. Asia, N. Africa, and N. America. It is connnonly 

 found in every part of 

 Great Britain e.\cept in 

 Cardigan, E. Sutherland, 

 up to the Shetland Isles, 

 and up to 1200 ft. in 

 Derbyshire. It is found 

 in Ireland and the Chan- 

 nel Islands. 



Bur-reed is one of the 

 features of aquatic vege- 

 tation. It grows in a con- 

 tinuous fringe with sedges, 

 rtags, and reeds along the 

 sides of a river or stream. 

 It forms beds in the shal- 

 low parts, helping to choke 

 up the bed and to divert 

 the course of a stream. 

 It also grows widely in 

 ponds, lakes, and pools, 

 which again it assists in 

 silting up, forming part of 

 the reed swamp. 



The rhizome or underground stem is strong, creeping, the roots 

 fibrous. The culm is erect, glabrous or smooth, leafy, branched. The 

 leaves are triangular at the base, the radical leaves twice as long as the 

 stem, sheathing with hollowetl margins, in two rows, keeled. 'I here 

 are four leaflike bracts. 



The plants are monoecious, and the tlowers are stalkless, the male 

 olive-brown, falling, the lower mics female, 1-3, in spiked branched 

 heads. The fruit is a drupe with a short beak, egg-shaped, 

 stalkless, with linear stigma, angular l^elow. The fiower-stalk is 

 branched. 



Usuallv Branched Bur-reed is 18 in. to 2 ft. high. The flowers 



HlR-REED (SfiargaiiiiDii riimosiiDi (C'lirt.) 



I'hoto. B. IliinlrV 



= S. erecliiiii) 



