130 
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 terminal 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 Pipewort. 
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. 
