Order 127. ERIOCAÙLEÆ. (Pipewort Family.)
Aquatic or marsh herbs, stemless or short-stemmed, with a tuft of fibrous roots, a cluster of linear and often loosely cellular grass-like leaves, and naked scapes sheathed at the base, bearing dense heads of monœcious or rarely diœcious small 2–3-merous flowers, each in the axil of a scarious bract; the perianth double or rarely simple, chaffy; anthers introrse; the fruit a 2–3-celled 2–3-seeded capsule; seeds pendulous, orthotropous; embryo at the apex of mealy albumen.—Chiefly tropical plants, a few in northern temperate regions.
1. Eriocaulon. Perianth double, the inner (corolla) tubular-funnel-form in the staminate flowers; stamens twice as many as its lobes (4). Anthers 2-celled.
2. Pæpalanthus. Perianth as in the last; stamens only as many as the corolla-lobes (3). Anthers 2-celled.
3. Lachnocaulon. Perianth simple, of 3 sepals. Stamens 3, monadelphous below. Anthers 1-celled.
1. ERIOCAÙLON, L. Pipewort.
Flowers monœcious and androgynous, i.e. both kinds in the same head, either intermixed, or the central ones sterile and the exterior fertile, rarely diœcious. Ster. Fl. Calyx of 2 or 3 keeled or boat-shaped sepals, usually spatulate or dilated upward. Corolla tubular, 2–3-lobed, each of the lobes bearing a black gland or spot. Stamens twice as many, one inserted at the base of each lobe and one in each sinus; anthers 2-celled. Pistils rudimentary. Fert. Fl. Calyx as in the sterile flowers, often remote from the rest of the flower (therefore perhaps to be viewed as a pair of bractlets). Corolla of 2 or 3 separate narrow petals. Stamens none. Ovary often stalked, 2–3-lobed, 2–3-celled; style 1; stigmas 2 or 3, slender. Capsule membranaceous, loculicidal.—Leaves mostly smooth, loosely cellular and pellucid, flat or concave above. Scapes or peduncles terminated by a single head, involucrate by some outer empty bracts. Flowers, also the tips of the bracts, etc., usually white-bearded or woolly. (Name compounded of ἔριον, wool, and καυλός, a stalk, from the wool at the base of the scape.)—Our species are all stemless, wholly glabrous excepting at the base and the flowers, with a depressed head and dimerous flowers.
1. E. decangulàre, L. Leaves obtuse, varying from linear-lanceolate to linear-awl-shaped, rather rigid; scapes 10–12-ribbed (1–3° high); head hemispherical, becoming globular (2–7´´ wide); scales of the involucre acutish, straw-color or light brown; chaff (bracts among the flowers) pointed.—Pine-barren swamps, N. J. to Fla. July–Sept.
2. E. gnaphalòdes, Michx. Leaves spreading (2–5´ long), grassy-awl-shaped, rigid, or when submersed thin and pellucid, tapering gradually to a sharp point, mostly shorter than the sheath of the 10-ribbed scape; scales of the involucre very obtuse, turning lead-color; chaff obtuse.—Pine-barren swamps, N. J. to Fla.
3. E. septangulàre, Withering. Leaves short (1–3´ long), awl-shaped, pellucid, soft and very cellular; scape 4–7-striate, slender, 2–6´ high, or when submersed becoming 1–6° long, according to the depth of the water; chaff acutish; head 2–3´´ broad; the bracts, chaff, etc., lead-color, except the white coarse beard.—In ponds or along their borders, Newf. to N. J., west to Ind., Mich., and Minn. July, Aug. (Eu.)