Annual(?), mostly submersed at high tide, emersed or stranded at low tide, the rare, permanently emersed lvs sagittate with short basal lobes, the more characteristic lvs modified into narrow phyllodia 4-18 נ0.5-1 cm, the free end often spatulate and to 1.5 cm wide; petioles and scapes terete; scape thick but weak, to 1 dm, with 1-2(3) whorls of fls or only a solitary fl; bracts ovate, obtuse, scarious, 2-5 mm; lower (or all) fls perfect; sep 3-5 mm, oblong-orbicular, appressed to the fruiting head; pet ovate, 4-5 mm; stamens ca 12, with linear, glabrous filament; fruiting pedicels recurved; achenes 1.5-2 mm, narrowly winged on the margins, the oblique to horizontal beak ca half as long as the width of the body; 2n=22. Brackish to nearly fresh tidal waters and salt marshes; N.B. and adj. Que. to N.C. July-Sept. (S. montevidensis var. spongiosa; Lophotocarpus spathulatus; L. spongiosus)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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