| I am a grass-like aquatic plant that grows along the banks of rivers and in marshes or shallow ponds. My stiffly edged stem is triangle shaped and has three long grass-like leaves. They sheath or wrap around the stem. I have seed clusters or nutlets that grow close to the stem. Ducks, Canada geese and muskrats will uproot me to eat. Dragonfly and mayfly nymphs crawl from the water up my stem and emerge in their adult form. Native leopard frogs hide from bullfrogs where I grow thickly. Many people use my name in the rhyme “____ have edges” to remember my triangular stem. |
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| I am an unusual looking plant. I grow along ditch banks, streams or rivers where my roots can reach the water. My stem is thick and contains tube-like conducting tissues around a hollow center. Solid joints connect my stem segments. Instead of seeds I produce spores from a cone. I have been around for 250 million years and once grew as large as a tree. One of my common names comes from the long striations of my stem and the cone-like tip. Another name comes from the high concentration of silica in the stem, which can be gathered and used to scrub dishes and pans when camping. |
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| I am known as one of the most used herbs of Spanish and Puebloan cultures. I grow in thick stands where the ground stays moist such as stream beds, low banks of a river or marshes. My broad basal leaves are 3 to 6 inches (7–15 cm) long, stand erect and are rounded at the tip. The thick leaves contain lots of moisture and often have a reddish-silvery edge. My flowers form a cone-shaped white spike with six white bracts about the base that look like petals. In the fall my stems, leaves and flowers turn brick red. My leaf stems will sprout roots to form colonies. I smell really strong and earthy. People use me for medicine for inflammation resulting from irritation, injury or infection. |
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| My female flowers form a dense, dark brown sausage-like cluster on a tall stiff stem. The male flowers that grow above this cluster leave a bare stem when they fly away after producing pollen. My seed head fluffs out when my seeds are dispersing. My sword-like leaves are flat, strap-like and spongy and wrap around the stem as they grow. I grow in wet places like marshes and ponds all over the world except where it is really cold. My new shoots taste like cucumbers, my green flower heads can be roasted like corn on the cob. My rootstalks can be eaten raw, roasted over hot coals or dried and ground into meal. Muskrats, geese and elk also eat my roots. Marsh hens, red-winged blackbirds, waterfowl and shorebirds use my leaves as nesting cover. |
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