# American bur-reed

*Sparganium americanum*

Its spherical, spiked fruiting heads resemble miniature medieval maces and are designed to float, allowing seeds to disperse via water currents.

- **Taxonomy:** Plantae › Tracheophyta › Liliopsida › Poales › Typhaceae › Sparganium
- **IUCN Red List status:** Least Concern
- **Population trend:** stable
- **Biome:** wetland
- **Habitat:** Shallow freshwater marshes, swamps, pond edges, and slow-flowing streams.
- **Diet:** Autotrophic (photosynthesis, absorbing nutrients from aquatic sediment)
- **Range:** Eastern North America, Central United States, Southeastern Canada
- **Size:** 30 to 100 cm tall
- **Lifespan:** Perennial (rhizomes can persist indefinitely)
- **Active:** diurnal
- **Threats:** Wetland drainage, water pollution, shoreline development, and invasive plant encroachment.
- **Safe to approach?:** Harmless. This plant is safe to approach and touch. When observing, tread lightly to avoid damaging the fragile wetland soil and surrounding aquatic vegetation.

## About

Sparganium americanum , American bur-reed , is a perennial plant found in the United States of America and Canada. Though this species resembles a grass, it is a type of bur-reed. This species is important for conservation purposes because it has the ability to remove nitrogen and phosphorus runoff from water, like many other wetland species. By doing this it protects waterways from excess nitrogen which can cause eutrophication. This increased nitrogen is especially a problem during the

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/d691648a-dd76-4a70-8d9d-c9c9c5eb2611
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/62371
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparganium americanum
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/17298/medium.jpg (Jason Hollinger, CC-BY, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.