In the muddy borders of ponds, sloughs, swamps, streams, lakes, and in dredged and roadside ditches. No doubt to be found in every county of the state but infrequent and rarely many specimens at a place.

Perennial 2-10 dm from a stoloniferous base, usually much branched above, the stems 4-angled, glabrous; principal lvs lanceolate or lance-linear, 4-12 cm, acuminate, tapering to a sessile or obscurely petiolar base, glabrous except on the margin; fls 4-merous, sessile in elongate, interrupted, leafy spikes; pet minute and greenish or none; stamens 4; fr short-cylindric or commonly widened above, 4-7 נ3-5 mm, roundly 4-sided or shallowly grooved, glabrous, its well developed bracteoles narrow, inserted at or often well above the base; 2n=32. Swamps, marshes, and wet prairies; Mass. and Conn.; locally in Pa. and Va.; s. Ont. to Minn., s. to Ky., s. Ill., s. Mo., and e. Kans. July-Sept.

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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