Isoetes lacustris
From The Plant Encyclopedia
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Isoetes lacustris | |
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| Kingdom | |
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| Family | Isoetaceae |
| Genus | Isoetes |
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About
Isoetes lacustris (lake quillwort or Merlin's grass) is a boreal Quillwort Lycopodiaphyte. It is native on both sides of the northern Atlantic Ocean; in Europe in Poland west to northeastern France, throughout Scandinavia, the west and north of the British Isles, the Faroe Islands and Iceland; in North America in the United States states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and in Canada in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The lake quillwort has many long, narrow leaves from 8–20 cm long and 0.5–2 mm broad, widening to 5 mm broad at the base. There is a sac that contains the spores at the bottom of each leaf base. It has a very small stem, called a corm, where the leaves and roots are attached. It does not have traditional roots, but instead some of its leaves are modified to act like roots.These leaves are attache to the bottom end of corm, called a rhizomorphs. The upper leaves are green and found in sprouting clumps.
It is found on the stony or sandy bottoms of clear, usually slightly acidic ponds, typically in mountain tarns, growing at 5–460 cm depth of water. They are perennial, with typically two flushes of new leaves each year, in spring and autumn.
Reproduction usually takes place during the late summer or early fall. The sacs at the bottom of leaves create two types of spores, female (megaspores, about 0.5 mm diameter) and male (microspores, a few micrometres in diameter). These spores represent the gametophyte phase of the life cycle.
This species is one of a few cultivated species of quillworts, either as an aquarium plant or as an educational resource.
