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Species Image Gallery (opens in a new window) |
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| THE QUILLWORT FAMILY | |||||||||
| The quillworts are a group of plants that are found in many regions around the world. These plants are evergreen aquatics or short-live terrestrial plants. The roots are lobed or branched. The leaves are simple and grass-like in appearance and enlarged at the base. These plants do not have flowers. Instead they have megaspores and microspores which unite to form new plants. The sporangia, or spore sacs, are found in the cavities at the base of the leaf. The megasporangia contain hundreds of white, gray, or black spores. The microsporangia contain thousands of microspores. Species in this family can be very difficult to distinguish because mature megaspores must be present. | |||||||||
| LAKE QUILLWORT | |||||||||
| LATIN NAME: Isoetes lacustris | |||||||||
| WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? | |||||||||
| Lake quillwort grows entirely under the surface of the water. There are several to many grass-like leaves. The leaves do not have stomata. The mega- and microsporangia are present at different times because they are housed in the same cavity. In this species, the megaspores have irregularly jagged ridges on the surface. | |||||||||
| WHERE DOES IT GROW? | |||||||||
| Lake quillwort is found submersed on lake bottoms. | |||||||||
| WHERE IS IT FOUND IN SASKATCHEWAN? | |||||||||
| This species is found in northern Saskatchewan in the Tazin Lake Upland and Athabasca Plain ecoregions. | |||||||||
| WHY IS IT RARE? | |||||||||
| Lake quillwort is endangered in Saskatchewan because it is rare and regionally restricted to the northern part of the province. In addition, this species is difficult to separate from its common relative. No immediate threats are known at the present time. | |||||||||
| HOW TO IDENTIFY LAKE QUILLWORT | |||||||||
| *Are the leaves grass-like *Does this plant live under the water? *Do the megaspores have irregularly jagged ridges on the surface? *Did you find it in northern Saskatchewan? | |||||||||
| If you answered yes to all of these questions, you may have found lake quillwort! | |||||||||
