Butomus (Flow^ering Rush) 



1. Butomus umbellatus L. Fig. 4, Map 5 



Common in marshes and shores along Lake Champlain and its 

 tributaries; rare elsewhere. The oldest specinien on file was collected in 

 1929 from Orwell, Vermont along Lake Champlain. This species is 

 naturalized from Eurasia and is spreading rapidly throughout the 

 marshes in the Lake Champlain Valley. However, it does not appear 

 to be crowding out other species. A submersed, non-flowering form, 

 forma vallisneriifolius (Sagorski) Gluck is often in streams. Range ex- 

 tends from the St. Lawrence River system in Quebec, Lake Champlain 

 Valley of Vermont and New York, Connecticut River Valley of Con- 

 necticut, westward along the Great Lakes to New York, Ohio, Michi- 

 gan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and widely scattered locations in North 

 Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Manitoba. 



alkalinity: mean 95.8 mg/1; range 55.0-153.0 mg/1; (5) 

 pH: mean 7.5; range 7.3-7.6; (5) 



Selected References 



Anderson, L. C, C. D.Zeis, and S. F. Alam. 1974. Phytogeography and 

 possible origins oi Butomus in North America. Bull. Torrey Bot. 

 Club 101: 292-296. 



Core, E. L. 1941. Butomus umbellatus in America. Ohio J. Sci. 41: 79-85. 



Countryman, W. D. 1970. The history, spread and present distribution 

 of some immigrant aquatic weeds in New England. Hyacinth 

 Control. J. 8: 50-52. 



Countryman, W.D. 1976. Lake Champlain's inland sea and the distri- 

 bution of aquatic plants. Proc. Lake Champlain Basin Environ- 

 mental Conference 3: 85-91. 



Godfread, C. and W. T. Barker. 1975. Butomaceae: A new family 

 record for North Dakota. Rhodora 77: 160-161. 



Muenscher, W. C. 1930. Butomus umbellatus in the Lake Champlain 

 Basin. Rhodora 32: 19-20. 



Staniforth, R. J. and K. A. Frege. 1980. Flowering rush (Butomus um- 

 bellatus) in the Canadian prairies. Canad. Field-Naturalist 94: 

 333-336. 



Stuckey, R. L. 1968. Distributional history of Butomus umbellatus 

 (flowering rush) in the western Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair re- 

 gion. Mich. Bot. 7: 134-142. 



